After Equality
by the-little-guru
Summary: Five hundred years after the Amon purged the first major city of bending, citizens of Republic City gather to celebrate Equality Day...Except for one girl who has been lost in dreams of the past. Written for the Probending Circuit Round 2. Being continued
1. Chapter 1

a/n: Prompt is Nonbending!AU. There are great advancements in medicine and technology here. Enjoy!

Word count: 1,344

* * *

Five centuries after the Equalist revolution, a fifteen-year-old girl flopped in her bed and stared listlessly at the ceiling, listening to the hasty footsteps downstairs as her parents prepared to leave for the city. Today, this week, there was no school because of the Equality Festival. Today was the Five hundredth anniversary of the first purge of the bending epidemic. Posters of the mystical and greatly admired mask of Amon, humanity's purifier, was hung up all over Republic City on this fateful day in history.

The girl, Cewong, heard her family's Satocraft start up and pressed her face to the window. She watched her parents glide off, floating like a disc through the wind. She sighed indolently, starting to regret her choice of not joining her parents on their celebration in the city.

But, then, she remembered what they'd done.

_They burned my dream journal._

One of her only possessions of importance, where she recorded night after night of vivid, beautiful visions. Visions of adventure, of nature, of love and fear and spirits...and strangest of all...bending. Cewong could almost feel the power of thousand sun and stars, visiting her in the night.

But it was all terrible. She was terrible and corrupted for dreaming about such things! And worst of all, she craved this perverseness, the dreams about the sensation of the elements in her bones. What was wrong with her?

_Many, many things._

She couldn't tell her parents or her friends. They would think she was insane for sure. She would be given therapy, and acupunture to erase her memories, and surgury in order to eliminate any potential bending attacks in her body.

No...she couldn't tell anyone. It would've been best to keep it to herself, and her journal.

Slowly, she had let go of most of her friends and family. She even distanced herself from her parents in order to be able to go back to that wonderful dream-like world, where splendidly beautiful creatures and people would show her visions of their past.

* * *

The fantastical images started visiting her when she turned eleven, and have only been increasing in depth and importance since. But they never felt physical. She never could never touch them. She could move however she wanted, but whenever she tried to touch something, it would go right throught her hand.

Oh well. Simply being in that world was more than enough for her anyways.

There were forests of vibrant trees, expansive plains of fresh radiant grass, and a sky that lit up like the spirits used to at the poles, according to folklore. There was a lady with a painted face, and a man with an arrow on his head, and a wistful looking girl with three archaic Water Tribe-style warrior tails on her head. And even two normal people, like her, were there! Unfortunately, she could not hear them. Their mouths moved soundlessly as they showed visions of her doing things that her parents taught her to be wrong. They were vile, disgusting acts. Harmful to the rest of society.

Nobody deserves such a curse...right?

Besides, none of it was real anyways. Yet she still craved it. Especially now that she was ostracized by almost everyone she knew. She had no friends, no trustworthy confidants. No person to tell her amazing dreams to.

So she turned to pen and paper: chapters and chapters, thousands of inked pages, full of her stories and her dream-friends' stories. All in her precious journal.

Soon, she was spending most of her day in a trance, and her parents started to get worried. They questioned her constantly, never quite believing her excuses of 'being tired.' Suspicion made them read into her every action.

No matter what happens though, she cannot let them see her journal. She had kept it hidden in the inside of her mattress, where nobody would think to look.

It should've been safe! It was hers! Her real life now! How dare anyone take it from her!

How dare they burn her entire thousand page masterpiece before her eyes.

Remembering how the pages shriveled and blackened, how the fire reflected off of her flat grey eyes...it brought up such fury out of her. It still did...

* * *

Cewong squeezed her head between her hands, willing herself to empty her body of anger. She had to be calm and forgiving, just like the arrow headed monk had told–

_No...stop thinking like this...he isn't real...none of it is real...you are abnormal, you need to stop thinking of this. It brings only pain and destruction to yourself._

She needed to get away, to go on a walk, or a swim.

Nodding once to herself, she changed into a pair of shorts, slipped a couple apples and a towel into her airtight backpack, and jogged over to the river near her house. Perhaps swimming to the mountains east of her house would do her some good. And she had plenty of time.

Her parents weren't likely to be back until very late at night. And even if they got home early, they wouldn't care if she was gone anyways. She was quite a disappointment

_Whatever. I don't need anyone else's approval._

* * *

Not ten minutes after Cewong emerged from the creek, a few miles downstream from where she started, it started to pour. Initially, the rain had felt refreshing, but after a while, it was cold and dark like a whirlwind of black dewdrops. Flashes of lightning ripped through the sky, thunder rolled over the damp forest and she really didn't want to jog three or four mile home in the raging storm.

No matter. She was close to the mounainous caves now. She could stay in one until the rain stopped. Perhaps she would even sleep and visit her dreams again...

Nestled away in the depths of the cave, Cewong crossed her legs and laced her fingers right beneath her abdomen. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, rocking back into the the stone wall behind her.

But to her alarm, the entire wall rattled, and a pebble fell on her head.

Cewong immediately bounced onto her feet and leaned in closer to investigate. From the illumination of violent white bursts of lightning, she could just barely make out dozens of compartments, like a gigantic fossilized honeycomb. Each compartment had a large, perfectly cut stone to fit it, engraved with three curiously familiar looking swirls.

Warily, Cewong slid out the first hexagonal stone cap and peered inside. To her surprise, she found a ancient, fragile-looking bamboo scroll, glazed over with clear, hardened pine resin. The first inscription read:

_Archives of Jinora, Daughter of Former Councilman Tenzin. Grandaughter of Avatar Aang and Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe._

_"The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. __The true heart can touch the poison of hatred without being harmed. __Since beginningless time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields __to purifying light"._

What? That line sounds awfully familiar... and was this "Jinora" person the daughter of a councilman? Then why were her archives sitting a dank cave instead of an actual study? And how did she get this wall to be coverend in such perfect, uniform stone cubbies? And how could she be related to an Avatar? According to her school textbook, the Avatar was just a legend.

Puzzled, Cewong opened the scroll and moved to the mouth of the cave, where she began to read by the flashes of lightning.

Little did she know that this tiny scroll would plant knowledge into her millenia old spirit; it would fill the emptiness and sow the seeds for a new revolution.

* * *

a/n: Cewong: (T'SEH-wahng) a tibetan name that means 'empowered life.'

Korra, as well as the next earth and fire avatar are gone now, so we're back to air. Ever since Korra lost her bending, the avatar spirit has been crippled in it's ability to bend, but it can still choose a person to continue the cycle. Spirituality still exists, but without bending. This is why Aang wasn't able to touch Cewong or give her bending back.

Also, there is new technology that allows doctors to alter people's memories and abilities through surgery and Qi points. Bending is now considered a "perversity" and people remove it from their children at birth.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n: Okay, I got requests from my effervescent Probending team, I'm going to continue this fic! We left off with a lady reading in a cave. Enjoy!

* * *

Weak, pale light washed across the face of a sleeping girl. The watery sun rose over Republic City, filtering through the smoggy remnants of last nights rain. But in the cave, it was cool and damp.

Cewong was still dreaming, hugging the scroll she'd been reading last night like it was a teddy bear. This time, her dreams were of a man with a wide brimmed cap and boyish smile, gazing pensively over rolling dunes of sand. They were in the air, riding on the current of bone dry winds, harsh yellow sunlight streaking across the desert sky. But soon they started to descend, towards a tiny tower between the arid waves. Like a toy lighthouse for weary travellers in a lonely sea of sand.

She leaned over, trying to see closer, but the sand was rising upon her like a tidal wave, like a predator waiting to swallow her whole. She leapt away, and felt herself fly, right up to the crest of the wave. She was almost over, when the sand crashed into her middle, washing her back to the earth. Everything was darkening again, while the waves continued to nudge her stomach. She curled up tighter, but they continued to prod into her, as if it were in search of something...

_Snuffle..._

_Sniff..._

_Sniff..._

* * *

"_Nuh!_" gasped Cewong as she started awake. Immediately, she was aware that she was clammy, stiff, and touching something wet and furry. She snapped her head up dizzyingly fast, and scrambled backwards until she smacked into the wall of the cave. To her surprise, there was a large, handsome, sandy haired fox sitting right where she'd fallen asleep last night, staring into her eyes, and _not_ running away in fear, for one reason or another.

"Erm...nice, fox thingy?" she said, reaching out a dubious hand in greeting.

The fox went up and sniffed her fingertips before whining at her and nudging her bag open with its furry snout and snuffled around until her two apples tumbled out.

"Aww...are you hungry?" murmured Cewong, reaching out to pet the fox.

The fox stared at her for a moment while she rand his fingers though its pelt. Its fur was soft as silk, smooth and fine to the point that it was almost vaporous. The fox stared at her with dark, wise eyes, almost like it held the lost secrets of thousands of years in its depths. Cewong stared into the mesmerizing chocolate pits, feeling the oddest sense of familiarity. She could've sworn that she'd seen it before.

_If only I could remember where..._

Suddenly, the fox lurched forwards and snapped at her torso. Cewong gasped and leapt back in fear as the large fox barrelled into her, knocking her onto her back. She rolled over and curled up timidly, but to her surprise, she wasn't remotely injured.

She glanced up, and realized that the fox was holding the scroll in it's mouth.

_What would a fox want a scroll for?_

Cewong leapt up and tried to go after the it, but unfortunately, it chose to run away from her this time, large paws darting soundlessly over to the mouth of the cave. Then, the fox broke into a gallop, gathering speed as its legs began to blur against the damp, yellowing grass on the hillside. Then, the it took flight!

Cewong rubbed her eyes incredulously, not sure whether she was still in her dreams.

_Foxes do not fly...foxes do not fly, right?_

But this one did; it wheeled through the sky, becoming fainter and fainter. The fox's sandy pelt turned translucent against the foggy skies, until the last ghost-like vapours evaporated into the clouds.

For a solid minute after it disappeared, Cewong stood at the mouth of the cave, staring numbly towards the exact spot in the sky where the fox had vanished. Suddenly, she pinched herself on the wrist, and yelped when she felt a prick of pain.

_Why did it hurt? Am I not dreaming still?_

She slowly wandered back into the cave, meticulously picking through every square inch of the dingy interior to confirm that the scroll was indeed missing. She scratched her head in confusion. Physical creatures couldn't just disappear, right? And she still could not, for the life of her, figure out why in the world a fox would want a measly roll of etched bamboo.

Well...it actually wasn't that measly. In fact, the scroll was beautifully narrated, even though it was only the personal journal of a twenty-something-year-old. Cewong could sense great maturity from each carefully carved character. And the tales it told were so surreal that is was almost like her dreams.

It spoke of a girl who was an Avatar, a "reincarnation" of the narrator's, _(Jinora, was it?)_ grandfather. Apparently, she had been defeated by Amon, the savior of the world.

But that couldn't be right. First of all, the Avatar was just a legend; her teachers and parents had all told her so. Second of all, the narrator seemed to be speaking in sympathy towards the Avatar, and against Amon, which meant she was evil. And third of all, Amon had no siblings, or bending, or anything! He was a poor, scarred, lonesome child who eradicated a sickness from the world, right? He was given a gift from...somewhere. Nobody knew where he'd learned purification skills, but with such advancements in medicine within the past few centuries, there was no need to do it with his method anymore. Who would want to tell lies about that?

However, the woman who wrote this said that Amon was a...a...a _bloodbender._ A person who could control another person's body fluids.

Cewong shuddered at the very thought of it. It couldn't be possible. This girl must be lying. This Jinora person must be trying to poison the minds of the future generations with evil stories.

And yet, Cewong still couldn't believe that the narrator of the scroll had virulent intentions. The way she wrote seemed almost penseive: eloquent, but with strong undertones of melancholy. It was like she'd lost hope already, and was simply emptying herself as a coping mechanism.

Cewong sighed, running her hands through her pale brown bobcut in confusion.

Suddenly, her stomach growled. All that thinking must have sparked her appetite. After all, she had not eaten since the left her house yesterday...

Wait...

Her house...

Her parents...

_Monkeyfeathers._

With a sinking feeling of dread, Cewong realized that she'd been out the entire night.

_Ohhhhh...my parents are going to kill me._

Hastily, Cewong snatched up her bag and sprinted down the dew-speckled mountainside, back to her house in the suburbs of Republic City, putting the morning's supernatural events behind her.

* * *

a/n: _What does the fox say!?_ (ringdingdingdingding...)

JK. I dedicate this chapter to Ms. K216 and karanathefirebender.

Reviewies plz!


	3. Chapter 3

a/n: Okay, little feels ahead. And if something looks familiar, it is not mine.

Oh Yis, and we left off with Cewong seeing a fox fly and realizing she slept in a cave.

* * *

Silently, Cewong scaled the tree outside her house, hoping that no one would see her. To no avail, she tried to control her panting after sprinting three or four miles to get home.

_CrapCrapCrapCrapCrapCrap_...she chanted internally, perched on a branch outside her window and taking hideous, gasping breaths. She glanced at her watch, her panic increasing when she saw that it was already ten thirty. Hopefully, the long night out would keep her parents from waking up too early.

Cewong haphazardly scrambled through the window and slung her bag to the ground, pausing in alarm when she heard a tiny intimation of footsteps touching the ground down the hall. Hastily, she ripped off her clothes and kicked off her shoes, managing to slip into the covers of her bed right as a bedraggled head poked through the door.

"Hon?" asked her mother, carefully opening the door of Cewong's room.

"Yeah?" replied Cewong, nervously peeking from beneath the covers. Hopefully, her mother won't notice the twigs and mud tangled in her hair.

"Cewong, can you be honest with me?" sighed her mother, moving to sit at the foot of the bed. Cewong surreptitiously scooted a bit further away with an uncomfortable sinking feeling in her chest.

"Yeah, mom, what's up?" she asked, leaning back and not quite meeting her mother's eyes.

"Cewong, were you out of the house last night?"

"Er...Yeah."

_That's why I wasn't _in_ the house, mother._

"When did you come home?"

"Uh….after you guys fell asleep?"

"We didn't fall asleep."

"Oh. _Errrrm_...I didn't mean to make you worri-"

"Honey, what's the matter with you?" asked her mother, moving closer, "You've been withdrawn and dishonest with us for so long now! Your father and I are very worried."

"Nothing's wrong." said Cewong through gritted teeth.

_Except for the fact that I have no freedom, nope, nothing's wrong…_

"Something _is_, or else you wouldn't be like this!" said her mother somberly, "We've tried everything to make you happy! We've done whatever we can to give you a comfortable life! What else can we do? Tell us, you're obviously _not_ happy right now!"

"You could've left me my dream journal." muttered Cewong petulantly, "That was only like, the most important thing I've ever created."

"_Cewong_." said her father's stern voice, causing her to snap her head up in alarm. He stood in the doorway, with his arms crossed and a stiff face, the only emotion betrayed by a slight furrow of worry on his brow.

"_What_." said Cewong, glancing away.

"Be respectful to your mother."

"Be respectful to me." mumbled Cewong in response, then added, "And to my personal stuff."

"Your _'personal stuff'_ was perverse, and detrimental to your well-being." said her father, with a hint of impatience, "It was ruining your mind and your relationship with you parents and your peers."

"Well, it made me happy!" said Cewong, "And it wasn't hurting you!"

"It was, Cewong. It was hurting you and us and everyone around you." said her mother sadly, "You were withdrawing to your room and sleeping all the time, and not making contact with anybody. Where were you? Why were you always tired?"

"That was because school was stressful."

"Cewong, you were not in honors classes, and you managed averagely high grades with little effort." said her father, "School was obviously not the problem. Was it your friends? Was it a bully? If there was anyone who was-"

"It was me, okay?" she said impatiently, "It has nothing to do with either of you, or my friends, or anything."

Her mother glanced backwards, exchanging a look with her father. "Cewong...your father and I have been talking, and..."

_Uh oh. This couldn't be anything good._

"...And we think you have schizophrenia and depression."

"What!? I'm normal! I was making myself perfectly happy!" said Cewong indignantly.

"Do not take that tone with your mother."

"_Sorry_." she muttered, not looking the least bit repentant.

"We've signed you up for therapy sessions."

"_WHAT!?_" snapped Cewong, "I don't need to talk to some lady that costs a fortune. I need to have freedom!"

"Honey, we've given you so much space." cried her mother, "We've given you time to try and heal yourself, but you insist on hiding away and obsessing over these unhealthy ideas of...of..._bending_ and-"

"So you think talking to a stranger will actually help?" said Cewong glumly.

"It may, considering that you don't talk to us, or your friends." sighed her father, "In fact, you don't have friends, since you've pushed everyone away."

"I'm sorry, okay father? I just don't like being social."

"From what we've seen, you spend plenty of time talking to your _imaginary_ friends-"

"They're not imaginary! Wait, no, _crap_, I mean-"

But this only made her parents widen their eyes even further.

_Crap! Why the heck did I say that?_

"-I'm not serious!" she said a little desperately.

"Cewong...just, please give the therapy a try." said her mother pleadingly, "Please. It's so painful to watch you slip away-"

"Mom. You don't have to say it." interrupted Cewong, looking down in with an overwhelming sense of guilt.

"We only want to protect you." sighed Cewong's father.

"I know, I know." said Cewong.

"Your sessions start the day after tomorrow." said her father.

"Okay, I kind of have homework now." mumbled Cewong sullenly.

"Alright." said her mother, opening her mouth like she wanted to say more, before closing it again.

"Seriously, I'll be okay." said Cewong, trying to force out a smile, "I'll try harder now. I'll be happy!"

Her parents didn't buy it.

But they did exit the room, with all the usual phrases of _"we love you"_ and_ "rest up"_ and _"don't be too upset about this"_ and _"remember that you have school tomorrow"._

Softly, the lock clicked behind them and Cewong could hear their hushed, fretful voices fading as they walked down the hallway. She slapped her hands over her face and vigorously rubbed her eyes with her palms.

_If only my nosey parents never found out about-_

Cewong immediately felt another wave of guilt and she derailed that train of thought. She sighed and slumped back in her bed, feeling ashamed at how she'd been behaving for the past few...well..._years_. Everyone had been nothing but kind to her, so why couldn't she just accept it and be happy? Why couldn't she just live in the real world instead of going off to her dreams of imaginary people and fake power?

She curled up further into her bed, reflecting on what could have made her turn out this way, and her conclusions amounted to...nothing. She literally had no excuses to be such a freak.

She was born into an upper middle class family, she went to an excellent public school in a great community, her parents loved her and got along perfectly, and gave her everything she needed, and she had a great group of friends. Her life was the perfect, priceless image of the ideal suburban life. So why? Why did it all start to begin with?

Sighing, Cewong forced away her oncoming headache. She dragged herself out of bed and pulled out some scrolls and textbooks from her backpack, putting the depressing thoughts behind her. Perhaps doing homework would make her feel better.

* * *

a/n: That was actually not as feelzy as I wanted it to be. Oh well. This will probably end up being a filler anyways.

Also, the society in this fic _might_ turn out to be what I imagined Asia to be if it had industrialized on its own instead of under the influence of the west.


	4. Chapter 4

a/n: Okay, important background info:

I'm going to pretend years here are based on the time since the first harmonic convergence, because that, to me, is the start of human history in the avatarverse. Also, this current society has a very collective mindset. Meaning, they like to be followers of the social order rather than deviants. There is heavy preference towards mathematics, science, and business, and engineering, and slight shunning towards art and literature.

All in all, the majority is a bit close-minded, but it's not a bad place to live. Almost everyone works hard, health services are very good, and there is little to no domestic abuse. Also, note that Cewong has very good parents. She isn't in a Zuko situation where she needs to be a certain way in order for her parents to love her; her parents are already very responsible and caring.

Oh, and nothing belongs to me. Enjoy.

* * *

_"Since the year 10,000, Amon has been bringing about a new world order of equality for all. Ever since the beginning of human history, bending has been a mar, the root of all war and strife and social differences. By clever work and diligence, Amon was able to disband and reform a government corrupted by bending in our own city, Republic City. Afterwards, he was able to bring the Equalists out of - _Yes, Cewong?" sighed the teacher irritably, breaking off from his lecture at Cewong's raised hand. He cocked an eyebrow at her, as if it was ridiculously inconvenient to answer a question.

"Sir, I don't understand something," said Cewong uncertainly, "Did the people living in Republic City at the time understand the drawbacks of bending?"

"No, Cewong, they resisted his reforms fiercely at first, but after a while, he was able to show them the truth."

"Then why would they resist?" asked Cewong in response, prompting a lot of odd stares from the rest of the class.

"Most benders at the time had an unhealthy addiction to the elements. It gave them a false sense of power and well-being, much like opium does for many people today." explained the teacher, in a similar tone of voice as one would use on a small child.

"Then why wasn't it outlawed earlier?"

"There were no means for nonbenders. Following industrialization, there was technology. I'm sure we've all heard of the innovative Hiroshi Sato, founder of Future Industries." prompted the teacher, glancing around the rest of the classroom, "Now, are there any other questions?" he asked pointedly, "We have much material to cover today."

"One more thing." asked Cewong, ignoring the teacher's passive aggression, and the hisses of her classmates, "Why isn't there any information about the legend of the Avatar?"

The room turned dead silent and the teacher stared at her incredulously.

"There is absolutely no reason to publish anything romanticizing the perverse sickness of bending." he stated, "Some things are best left buried."

Then, he turned back to the board self-righteously and continued his lecture.

* * *

Cewong stared vacantly at the board, feeling more and more confused about all of this.

She had always been curious about the avatar, but she had never managed to obtain any detailed information until she found those scrolls in the cave. Of course, there still wasn't any guarantee that the information was accurate, but everything written in it was logical. She should think that with all the time and advancements of the human race, that there would also be advancements in culture and the accuracy of history and mythology...but no such luck.

The society she lived in, although technologically advance, put little value in culture, literature, or performing arts. Even with a cyberweb connecting all the information of the entire world together, Cewong could never find any dependable source for things that _she_ was interested in. What was truth and what was lies? One could never tell.

There were barely any literary or ancient historical scholars in her time; almost everybody was concerned with the subjects of science and mathematics, business, law, or medicine. Pragmatic subjects. Normal subjects. and in her modern society, certain norms must be followed in order to procure a steady income, a relatively comfortable life, and so far, Cewong has trouble conforming to all of them.

Even though she was somewhat competent with all of her STEM classes, what she truly yearned for was literature, poetry, novels, even history and mythology! She loved nature and culture and art and dancing and music! She couldn't possibly satisfied with such a Spartan education.

There was no food for the spirit anywhere; each individual just lived their own rushed lives, learning more and more about the technicalities of their world, but knowing next to nothing about themselves. It saddened Cewong that nobody really seemed to care about anything.

She sighed and rested her head on her desk for a moment, not noticing that the bell had rung.

"_Cewong!_" barked her teacher, "Wake up!"

"Oh! Sorry sir." she said, hastily packing up upon noticing her teacher's irritated expression, "Erm, I didn't fall asleep. I promise I remembered everything."

"Cewong, I need to speak with you." said her teacher ominously, "I can write you a pass to your next class."

"Uh, Okay." said Cewong, tapping her fingers against the desk anxiously as the rest of the students exited the room, talking and laughing with each other. Her eyes followed them enviously.

_I used to be like that._

"I understand you have very, unconventional interests, but I ask that you please keep them to yourself during class." said her teacher sternly, breaking her out of her thoughts, "It would not do to distract the rest of the class."

"Sorry sir." said Cewong, scuffling her feet around awkwardly.

"Also, I will have to report this to your parents."

"_What!? _I mean...that won't be necessary, sir."

Her teacher raised a skeptical eyebrow and said, "I'm sorry, but this school does not condone your current interests. This is not the first time you have broken the school's policies, whether intentionally or unintentionally."

Cewong nodded with a hint of petulance.

"Now off to your next class." snapped the teacher, whipping out a late pass.

Cewong nodded once more before hastily exiting the room, grumbling under her breath.

How lovely. She would get a report of errant behavior delivered back to her parents, the day after she promised them that she would try harder. And she _was_ trying to be better person and a better citizen! It was just hard not to let curiosity get the better of her!

Huffing irritably, Cewong sprinted to her biology class, hastily shoved the note onto her teacher's desk, and slumped into a seat in the very back corner of the room, while trying to ignore all the odd stares from the rest of the students.

The healer, the teacher of their biology and anatomy class, paused a moment and looked at her with a raised eyebrow before continuing to explain the properties of the Qi points.

Cewong quietly huffed again and took out her tablet, halfheartedly forcing mind to focus on the _enrapturing_ subject of anatomy.

* * *

Afterwards, Cewong had a lunch period and she weaved through the throngs of bustling student headed to the cafeteria, even though she wasn't hungry.

_Maybe I should just go to the library and take a nap..._

NO! She couldn't. She promised her parents and herself that she would try to leave that dreaming foolishness behind.

After giving herself a mental shake, Cewong peered into the cafeteria, and upon noticing the long lunch line, she decided to go to the bathroom first.

Cewong walked into the girls lavatory and stood in front of the sink to wash her hands.

Then, she glanced into the mirror...and gasped. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw a reflection that was not her own! The girl in the mirror had an ethereal nature to it, eyes glowing blue and hair billowing in all directions like it was surrounded by rabid winds, like the people of her dreams.

Cewong's stumbled backwards in fear, but the moment she blinked, it was gone, and her own, plain reflection stared back, muddy grey eyes and short, mousy brown hair. Ordinary. Powerless.

_Great. Now my freakish dreams are turning into hallucinations._

She sighed and ran a bony hand through her hair. Maybe her parents were right to sign her up for therapy. She was now in a constant state of desolate confusion. If she had therapy, she had the feeling that she would still feel desolate, but perhaps the confusion would be gone. Perhaps she would be able to establish a goal, even if it wouldn't fill the emptiness inside.

She exited the bathroom, wondering why she always felt empty. Surely it wasn't normal...

Cewong was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't notice a group of four giggling girls lurking around the corner.

"_Hey, Cewong._" said the ringleader of the posse of girls with faux sweetness as she flicked glossy, curled hair out of a heavily made up face.

Cewong snapped her head around and immediately grew wary. She lifted a cautious hand slightly in greeting, hoping that they would get the message and leave.

_No such luck._

"So, I heard that you asked about the, Avatar in history class." laughed one of the girls, "_Spirits_, retard, don't you know the avatar's not real?"

"Why are you so interested anyways? Do you want to bender?" sneered the tallest of the group haughtily, looking down her nose as if flaunting her height towards Cewong.

"I bet you were one of the ones who had to have bending removal." hissed the fourth girl, "_Freak_."

Cewong glared up at them and tried to barge past, into the cafeteria, but the four girls formed a wall.

"Don't you have class?" asked Cewong pointedly, backing away from them with caution.

"We can't possibly miss more of the lecture than you do, right?" said the ringleader nastily, "You only ever ask stupid questions and draw and write useless stuff."

"At least I'm curious about things." retorted Cewong, "At least I'm not a vapid sycophant. If you even know what those words mean."

"Oh yeah? I bet you can't even prove the quadratic equation." jeered _'vapid sycophant'_ #3.

"I bet the only reason you _can_ prove it is because you memorize and cheat." snapped Cewong, who was now backed against the lockers.

The girls all ignored Cewong's jibe and opted to stare at her bag in great interest instead.

"What do you even write in that ratty little notebook anyways?" asked the ringleader with glossy curls.

"None of your business!" muttered Cewong, putting her hands over her bag protectively.

"I think it is." said another girl, gleefully making a grab for her bag.

"Let go, brainless bimbo!"

"_WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?_" screeched the girl, tugging viciously on the bag.

Meanwhile, the poor bag, which was not designed to be used for tug of war, tore open at the seams, allowing all of its contents to spill across the floor of the hallway.

Cewong's heart stopped when she saw her second notebook, that she kept even more carefully concealed from her parents, skidding across the floor, into the hands of the cruel girls surrounding her.

"Give it back!" cried Cewong angrily, punching the girl in a series of Qi blocks.

The girl collapsed dramatically onto the floor, crying hideously loud and clutching her sides...right as a teacher emerged from a nearby classroom. Cewong backed away in dread, putting her hand in the air and cursing her luck.

"_What in the spirits name is going on!?_" demanded the teacher, hurrying into the hallway to help the lying, bullying weasle sna...

_Okay. Calm down Cewong. Just tell the truth, you were not in the wrong. You were only defending-_

She was about the open her mouth, but the other girl beat her to it.

"Sir, we were only helping her pick up her books after her bags ripped," sniffled glossy curls girl, "But I asked her what her notebook was and she just got so defensive!"

"That's NOT what happened, you-"

"Cewong, please speak in a civil voice."

Cewong crossed her arms and nearly burst from the unfairness of it all. "_I'm saying-_"

"Sir, I think she's hiding something." interrupted the other girl innocently, "She's been acting very odd lately, and all of her friends are worried."

"You aren't my friends!" snapped Cewong.

"Stop it. Of _course_ we are!" cried he tall girl, shedding her former aloofness more easily than if was a mask.

"_Girls_." sighed the teacher with a hint of exasperation.

They quieted down immediately.

"Cewong," he continued, "I understand that this...journal of yours is a private possession, but due to these suspicions, we will have to examine it."

"_But_-"

"Do not worry. If it is safe, no information will be given to other sources." said the teacher, slipping the notebook into his sleeve.

"_I_-"

"Now _shoo!_ I have a class, and you all have classes." said the teacher, turning his back on them as he strode back into his room.

Cewong stared numbly at the retreating teacher. Watching the teacher walk away with her notebook was even worse than when her parents found it the first time. This time, it wouldn't just be destroyed; it would be given to public investigation and her reputation would be ruined more than it already was. Cewong exhaled, trying to suppress the heavy stone of dread settling in her chest.

_I am royally screwed._

"_Bye bye, bitch_." hissed curly haired ringleader, rubbing her sides pointedly. Before Cewong could say a word, the bratty little posse of four strutted off, leaving her standing in the middle of the hallway like an idiot, surrounded by a ripped bag and scattered papers.

Logically, Cewong should have been angry, but she was getting so tired about everything that she couldn't bring herself to care. She was in such emotional turmoil between the dread of her biggest secret being publicized, and her confusion about the truth and history of her world, and the unadulterated certainty that _something was wrong with her._

_Stop it. Stop it wimp._

She scolded herself roughly. She screwed up so many times. Her parents must be so ashamed of her.

_Why does it have to be like this?_

Cewong wished that she had been born a little more _ordinary_. Perhaps then, she would be a better fit for her perfect, ordinary life.

Sighing for what felt like the millionth time that day, Cewong began the tedious process of picking up all her scattered books.

_I can't wait for this day to end._

* * *

a/n: _The Notebook_ (yeah, not quite...)

Okay! This chapter is dedicated to all the followers: Dragonchampion, Ms.K216, gillian808, and someonesomewhere18

You are awesome!

And thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

a/n: a few things: Cewong's thoughts will be italicized.

Also, think of bending and the Avatar, and any bending related things as illegal and frowned upon, like substance abuse. Therefore, it's censored. Being found with that stuff on you won't land you in jail, but it completely ruins your reputation.

Also, Cewong has terrible judgement. Like seriously, she's a bit screwed up in the head. Still humane and intelligent...but not _normal_, per se. She is reckless with her own life and sucks at expressing herself.

We left off with the little lady's journal being found at school. Oh ya, and nothing is mine. Enjoy!

* * *

That evening, Cewong was getting ready for bed, and realized something...if the school got a hold of her journal, they would know about everything: the dreams, the people, and...the cave...

_Crap, no, not the cave!_

If any officials found out about the cave, they would surely confiscate all of its contents and she would never be able to learn anything else. All those scrolls, all that potential knowledge and truth, gone forever. The thought made Cewong twitchy with panic. What if they started already?

Cewong splashed cold water in her face and padded down the hallway, into her room. Then she began to pace. She knew with absolute conviction that she had to find out what else was in those archives; she felt an insistent voice _(was it her conscience or something more malicious?)_ telling her to go.

Soon, she had decided. Against all logic and reasoning, Cewong decided to sneak out that night and take pictures of all the scrolls. As long as nobody could see the pictures in her phone, she would be safe...

But if they read her journal, they'd probably have to do thorough search of all her possessions, including her cell phone, and tablet, and they would just find the photos anyways. And if the police _really_ suspected her, they would be able to track any of her electronics, so it would be no use hiding it.

_Darn it._

Maybe she should just 'lose' her phone in the woods, let it run out of battery, and recharge it later to find the pictures. But then, they would just track her phone the moment it recharged.

Suddenly, Cewong was struck with a pang of guilt. She was turning into such a deceitful person who lied and cheated and subtly broke the law behind her parents' back. She should stop this nonsense now! Before she gets caught!

Well...the key word is _'should'_, which was not he same as _'would'_.

So that is why, against her better judgement, Cewong is now sneaking out of the house via the tree outside her window. On her back was a bag with a flashlight and outdated, mechanical camera. There was no way anyone would track that thing!

At the base of the tree, Cewong paused a moment to glance back and make sure her parents were in their room and nobody's lights were on. Then, she hopped on her bike and sped off into the moonless night, towards the woods on the fringes of her community.

* * *

About 20 minutes later, Cewong was clambering up the dark, stony hillside towards the place where she remembered the mountainous caves to be. However, there were so many caverns dotting along the mountainside, and she had to investigate each one before finally coming to the cave lined with familiar stone cubbies, full of dubious, addictive knowledge.

Cewong hastily pulled out the old, mechanical camera and shone her flashlight across the dozens of hexagonal cubbies on the wall. Then, she pulled out one of the stone caps and carefully spread the second bamboo scroll across the floor.

She was about to take a picture, when suddenly, she heard a rustling coming from the dark meadow outside the cave.

Cewong froze for a moment before urgently snapping her flashlight off. She silently scrambled to the back of the cave, heart thudding painfully in her throat. Her stomach felt like a mass of squirming gravel and she could barely breath with panic.

But the rustling did not return. After another tense minute of silence, Cewong let out a relieved exhale, before reprimanding herself for being so twitchy.

_Silly girl. It was probably just a deer-cat or something._

With false bravado, she reopened her flashlight and camera and made her way back to the scroll, preparing to spend a long night documenting all of the ancient archives. A chilly breeze swept in from the mouth of the cave, and she turned her back on it, pulling her shawl tighter around herself and positioning the camera for the first picture...

Suddenly, a lurid, white light flashed across the cave and Cewong snapped her head up in fear.

"_FREEZE!_" shouted a voice from the edge of the cave.

With dread sinking into her stomach like a heavy pile of worms, Cewong slowly turned her head around, and was met with the sight of two police officers, each with a taser pointed towards her.

The entire cave was illuminated with the artificial, blinding brightness from their flashlights. The fifteen year old blinked numbly and held up her hands, and trying to ignore the riotous mix of fear, guilt, and trepidation that seemed to pump through her veins with every painful heartbeat.

"What are you doing here, kid?" demanded the first policeman, a gruff, greying man with a straggly mustache.

"I...nothing..." stammered Cewong uncertainly.

"Please step aside so that we may search your person." said the second cop, a woman who also looked severe, but not quite as old or caustic as the man.

Cewong willed herself to move, but for some reason her limbs couldn't respond. She could only stare at the two officers dumbly, mind clouding with inexplicable panic.

"Miss, you must step aside _now_," commanded the female officer while giving the taser a meaningful twitch, "Or we will have to employ force."

Cewong hastily stooped to pick up the scroll against her better judgement, and stood up, hoping that the officers wouldn't notice.

No such luck.

"Keep your hands above your head." barked the policeman, "And release your possession right now."

Cewong was still indecisive, and slowly losing her nerves as the officers backed her into the corner or the cave, their sharp commands mixing into grey, background noise. With such an adrenaline-clouded mind, everything was too vivid and blurry, sounds too loud and indistinct, colors blending into one bright blob.

In her stressed state, Cewong could not obey the policeman's order. Instead, she made a panicked dash for the exit of the cave, still clutching the scroll.

This, of course, was the least intelligent choice to make.

Cewong heard a whizzing noise as two clipped wires shot out at her, and she heard the buzzing static of electricity long before she felt it. An awful, searing sensation of buzzing nerves and agonizingly contracted muscles seized her body, and after an infinitely long second of dull pain, she blacked out.

* * *

When Cewong woke up, she was aware of the sensation of falling, and building speed faster and faster...

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and she saw herself hurtling into what seemed like a gigantic, dark building with stone bridges in the shape of a 't'. The crossed bridges spanned over a square chasm, from which story after of story of shelves stood, illuminated by eerie green light.

"Help!" yelped Cewong to nobody in particular. Then, she remembered that this was probably just a dream, where weight, mass, and gravity really had no effect.

She chided herself for initially thinking this surreal building was real, and willed her body to slow its descent, until her feet gently touched the surface of the stone bridge below. Upon landing, she looked around and noticed that the building was artfully carved, with owls adorning the arches and pillars that led to hundreds of hallways full of...books!

Now, it occurred to Cewong that this was probably a library.

_Why would I dream of a library?_

Maybe it had something to do with the the scrolls that were going to be confiscated and destroyed. Perhaps her mind was trying to compensate for the fact that she would never find out the rest of what this _"Jinora"_ person stored in the cave.

Cewong sighed in disappointment and slumped against the railing of the stone bridge, cursing her stupidity. Not only would she never find out the contents of the scrolls, but now, she would probably be arrested for insubordination. And to top it all off, she would be be extraordinarily sore and tired when she wakes after being tasered.

Oh yes, and there was also the thing with disappointing her parents, but Cewong had already kind of given up on fixing that, because she was basically born a disappointment. Maybe she should try to never wake up. Maybe she should just stay in her lucid dream world forever, especially if her mind can generate all this lovely, readable literature, and the colorful countryside, and a bunch of people she can stay with, even if she can't talk to them.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over the patch of ground that she had been staring at dejectedly. Cewong looked up in alarm, straight into the dark, bottomless eyes of a giant, black owl looming over her like a wraith.

Its beak was moving, but she could hear nothing coming out. It cocked it's head irritably at her bewildered expression.

"Erm...I can't hear anything..." explained Cewong, hoping that she did not offend the large, dangerous looking bird of prey. Then, she remembered that nothing could hurt her because none of this was real anyways!

_Silly wimp._

Meanwhile, the giant owl bent its long neck to look her in the eyes, as if to read her intentions.

"Is this all yours?" asked Cewong, awed by the sheer scale of the library.

The owl nodded curtly, before raising a massive wing to point upwards towards the exit. It obviously wanted her to leave.

"May I have just a small peek?" said Cewong hesitantly, glancing around the massive palace of archives, "I love this library! I could stay here, forever, reading...-OW!"

The owl had clouted her over the head with its wing before gesturing down a hallway leading away from the bridges. Cewong turned and gasped when she saw a dried corpse, clad in archaic clothing and a wide-brimmed hat, slumped against the shelves.

Cewong got an uncomfortable shivering sensation down her spine upon seeing the whithered remains of a once living, breathing human being. Then, upon closer inspection, she found that parts of it looked oddly familiar.

_Where have I seen that hat before?_

Then, she heard and irritable flap of wings, snapping her attention back to forwards.

"_Huh?_ Oh sorry Mr...erm...owl, sir?" stammered Cewong warily looking back at the corpse. Then, with a little bit of mental straining, Cewong was able to remember where that corpse had come from! The dream she had the night she found the cave...about the man with intelligent eyes who was flying through the desert with her. But why would she dream about him again, and make him dead at that?

She was about to open her mouth to say more, when suddenly, she saw a lupine shape slinking behind the owl's back.

Cewong tilted her head slightly to the side and saw...a fox? A handsome sandy colored fox that was exactly like the one that morning in the cave, the morning after she dreamed about the man! Was it real? Was it a figment of her imagination too? It couldn't have been! She remembered touching the fine pelt with her own hands, she remembered it taking away the first scroll and running away and flying-

_Yeah...it was probably a hallucination._

"I wish you were real." sighed Cewong to herself, "Then you could help me save the rest of the scrolls."

Suddenly, the fox bound up to her and looked up at towards the owl, which seemed to be speaking words to it.

Cewong stood up and looked between the two of them, immensely curious.

_Why can't my stupid dreams have an audio feature?_

The owl then whipped around and squinted at her with narrowed eyes, before touching his wing lightly onto the fox's back, and making a small, white spark.

Cewong gasped when she felt a massive surge of energy, almost like a high frequencey sound wave, rush through the room.

Suddenly, Cewong felt herself being jerked off of the stone floor, backwards through the dozens of stories in the library until she reached the sky, and she could see a sickly green emitted by the jungle where the library had hung upside down. Then, all the colors of the ground began to blend together like a waterspout of liquidated grass, wood and stone. She yelped and squeezed her eyes shut as the hurricane collided with her torso and sent her hurtling high, higher, and higher...until...

All motion stopped for a second, and Cewong warily cracked open an eye.

And gasped in horror.

She was back in the cave, but NOT IN HER BODY.

Cewong cried out in panic when she realized that her body was slumped against the cold wall of the cave, where the two police officers were investigating the scrolls. She looked down and noticed that her hands were blue and transparent.

_Am I dead?_

Suddenly, a ferocious current of wind started to whip around the room, alarming the police officers and disturbing the shawl that Cewong had wrapped around her physical , her body's eyes were beginning to light up.

Within moments, her hair was whipping around her face, and her eyes were glowing the same eerie, ethereal blueish-white she had seen in her reflection in the bathroom mirror!

Then, the entire cave began to rumble, and with a blinding flash of light, the little fox appeared in the cave again. Except this time, it was four or five times the size of a normal fox, and black and violet instead of beige and brown.

With great terror, Cewong noticed that her own body's eyes were starting to fill with redness as well, and her gaping mouth let out a stream of black fire, which the demonic fox seemed to be drawing energy from.

_How is that even possible!?_

Meanwhile, the police officers stood huddled in the back of the cave, terror stricken eyes reflecting the mixed pure and corrupted light from her body. They watched helplessly as the fox advanced to where the scrolls were, a growl coming from within its bared fangs.

After a brief investigation of the bookshelf, the fox lunged forwards, jaws gaping open, and attacked the compartmentalized archives with the vigor of a bear snapping through honeycombs. The entire wall of the cave smashed to pieces with a thunderous _CRASH! _and the monstrous fox snatched up all the dozens of scrolls in its massive jaws.

Then, the winds started to slow down, and Cewong's body seemed to shrink into itself, light fading from her eyes and her hair settled around her pale face like limp yarn. The black energy from her mouth started to thin out until it was barely a thread, which the fox hung onto for a slight moment more, before..._pop!_

All at the same time, the thread of black fire snapped, the fox vaporized out of existence, and Cewong felt a jerking motion along her spine as she was sucked back into her physical body from top of her head. After another blur of color, her world was engulfed in blackness, and pain, and stifling fatigue, all evidently, achingly _real_.

She didn't even have enough strength or willpower to open her eyes yet...

After a few more moments, Cewong finally forced her eyelids to wrench themselves open when she heard a muffled shuffling of feet coming from the other side of the cave. She groaned and numbly watched the movement of the wary officers, head tilted backwards at an awkward angle since her neck muscles decided to stop obeying her brain.

"_W-What are you?_" breathed one of the guards in fear as the other one went outside to call for backup.

Cewong simply closed her eyes, refusing to believe the events that had just occurred.

_You know what? This cannot possibly be happening._

Cewong told herself that she had not actually seen a giant demon fox, or watched her own body start to glow, or observe the destruction of an entire wall of rock. Surely, she just fell asleep while photographing the scrolls! Surely, she would wake up in the wee hours of morning and realize that she would be late for a _normal_ school day in her _normal_ body in her _normal_ life.

She chanted this hope for normality to herself, even as she heard the indistinct voice of an officer say _"you're under arrest"_ and felt cold metal cuff her hands together and burly arms carry her to a seat in the back of...some sort of vehicle.

But deep inside, she knew with a heavy heart, that what had happened was real. No matter how supernatural or crazy it seemed, she had witnessed the truth. She also knew that after this moment, nothing will be the same again.

But for now, she didn't care. She was so tired and just needed to sleep. Cewong sighed and exhaled the last shreds of her consciousness, allowing herself to fall into a deep slumber.

* * *

a/n: welp, that was a rather depressing chapter.

Review! Criticize the crap out of it!

Oh yis, and before I forget, thank you all reviewers and followers! You are awesome!


	6. Chapter 6

a/n: Okay, I am crap at writing relationships with parents, so anything related to that will be awkward. Also, crazy new character! (just a note, the new character is 19 years old.)

And we left off with Cewong accidentally summoning a spirit fox, getting arrested, and falling asleep in the police's technological hover-car thingy.

Oh, and nothing belongs to me.

Enjoy!

* * *

There was a sea of blackness, of perfect, warm, soft unconsciousness to soothe her fatigued body and mind. And during the entire rest of the time she was asleep, there was only darkness and no dreams, a rare occurrence for Cewong. For the first time in years, her rest was peaceful.

But slowly, sadly, she was dragged out of her deep slumber as the tendrils of consciousness crept into her mind, and she was aware of lying on a coarse bed. Cewong opened her heavy eyelids, surprised by the sterile white light that flooded the room. With contracted pupils, she sat up and looked around mindlessly for one more moment before realizing that she was probably very late for school.

_Wait..._

She didn't have school...

Because of last nights events...

Because she was probably in jail.

Cewong groaned and slapped her hands over her eyes.

_I really do not want to remember that weird, creepy, demon...ugh._

Suddenly, she froze when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway, and hastily squirmed back under the covers. Perhaps she could fake sleep for a few more moments.

The grey metal door slid open, and a nurse strode into the room, holding a small white clipboard.

Through barely opened eyes, Cewong observed the nurse pattering around the room, measuring medicine and examining the monitors before coming over to her bedside.

"Get up." said the nurse briskly, "I can tell you are not asleep."

Cewong got out of the covers, slightly chagrined.

"How could you tell?" she asked curiously.

The nurse ignored her and shoved a bowl of muddy, fetid herbal medicine into her hands instead.

"Drink all of this and put on some clothing." barked the nurse, pointing to her clothing at the foot of the bed, which had been cleaned and mended. "I will come back in five minutes." the nurse said, starting to leave.

"Wait!" said Cewong hesitantly, "Am I-"

"You are in Republic city prison A2." interrupted the nurse without batting an eyelash, "Further explanations will be given later."

Then, she strode out of the room, slamming the metal door shut on the way out.

Cewong winced at the resounding _clang_! The inside of the head felt extremely tender and her limbs still felt leaden. Internally, she groaned. Since she was in prison, she would either never see her parents again, or they would visit her and be all kind and understanding and make her feel even more ashamed than before. (She honestly couldn't decide which was worst.)

Plus, this just happened to be the most notorious prison in Republic City, rumored to be the unofficial interrogation (torture) chamber for dangerous political prisoners. She was nervously stewing. The rumors _should_ be false, right? After the Egualist Revolution, the world had entered a new era of stability and humanity, so any whispers of torture should just be overactice imaginations. And even if they weren't, nobody would seriously harm an underaged girl...

Well, at least they they be less likely to if she complied with some of their requests. Starting with the medicine.

Cewong glanced down into the murky bowl of brown liquid in her hands. It looked even more disgusting than the little packets of instant herbal remedies that her mother brewed for her colds. But her mouth felt like sandpaper, and she was thirsty enough to drink just about anything.

Taking a deep breath and trying not to inhale the bitter fumes, Cewong tilted the her head back and drained the entire bowl in five gulps. Spluttering at the foul taste, she slammed the bowl on the table and grimaced before dragging herself out of the starched bed sheets to get dressed.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, she had been fed,and taught all the rules of the prison, and was being herded down a hallway, past steel doors lined in uniform rows. There were a couple guards stationed throughout, watching for any potential escapees.

Finally, she was stopped in front of a door near the very end of the hallway, with a particularly tall, surly looking guard posted in the front...and ridiculous off-key singing coming from within.

The guard nodded to the officer taking her to her cell, before gingerly sliding open a little slot, at eye level, where he could look inside. The sound of singing paused.

Suddenly, a pair of shrewd, heavy lidded blue eyes appeared on the other side of the slot, causing Cewong to jump in alarm. The blue irises darted back and forth for a moment, as if examining the surroundings, before landing on Cewong.

"_Heyyyyyyy!_" exclaimed the lively female voice attached to the eyes, "Who's the new girl? Is she the newest guard for me to entertain?"

The guard did not respond; he merely took a deep breath and clenched his fists before irritably saying, "She's a prisoner who needs to be put in your cell. Now shut it."

"YES! I get a cell mate!" said the other girl inside the cell, her impish blue eyes flashing to the surly guard, "You know hwat dude, this is really swell because we're going to have sleepovers and I'm going to teach her how to sing as well as I can. And we'll compose love songs for you to sing to your girlfr-...wait, do you even have a girlfriend?"

The guard chose not to answer, but he did start to develop an alarming tic in the jaw.

"So you don't have a girlfriend, huh?" said the girl, mischievous eyes widening farcically, "Ohhhhhh. So you're _that_ way. Well, I guess instead, you could sing the love songs to your boyfr-"

_BANG!_

The guard finally snapped and slammed his fist into the door, yelling out a litany of swear words that sent Cewong's eyebrows rocketing into her hairline.

"Uh oh! Somebody's getting a wittle bit _toooooo_ defensive!" grinned the reckless prisoner, "Your cursing this time was even more creative than than last time you lost your marbles."

"_SHUT. UP._ Speak one more word and this girl suffers for your insubordination!" roared the guard, wrenching open the door and roughly shoving Cewong inside. Angrily, he slammed the door shut, allowing semi darkness to engulf the cell.

Cewong apprehensively moved to the corner of the tiny steel enclosure, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the lesser light. She was met with the sight of a room of about four by five meters with a tiny slit of a window on the ceiling. On all sides where metal walls, marred by sporadic clusters of small dents, and two deflated mattresses sat on opposite sides of the room. In the back corner, there was a small squat toilet, covered with a plastic curtain in the fading pattern of turtleducks. Adjacent to it, a tiny sink stuck out of the wall. In the other back corner of the room, there was a small office-like space with a filing cabinet, lamp, sketching tools, and surprisingly, a computer.

_I thought prisoners weren't allowed access to electronics..._

Suddenly, her examination of the room was cut off by the blue eyed girl, tan, lanky, smug-looking, with puffy bangs and a small upturned nose. She looked to be in her late teens and her mouth seemed to be frozen in a perpetual cheshire-like grin. Within the first few seconds of meeting, Cewong could already tell the girl was clever and had a huge ego.

"So, cell mate," smirked the other prisoner, lounging grandiosely on her ratty mattress, "What brings you to my domain?"

Cewong shrugged. If she told the truth, the girl would think she was crazy.

"Quiet, aren't we?" noted the girl, "Can you at least tell me your name? You seem a little young for prison."

"Hmm." hummed Cewong noncommittally. She didn't want to think about hername or who she was. She didn't want to think about anything at all. She didn't want to remember that she was a fifteen year old, who managed to screw up so magnificently in her search for knowledge on a socially taboo subject. Honestly, she still felt a bit numb, not ready to even admit if what happened was real.

"_How the Koh does this even happen?_" she muttered to herself.

"Who in the what now?" asked her cell mate with lifted eyebrows.

"I...well..."

"Okay, let's start with this: are you going to kill me? I mean, not that an actual sociopathic killer would answer honestly or anything..."

"No! I'm not convicted for murder!"

"Okay, so you are probably a soft hearted little weirdo who is way too curious about all the wrong stuff?"

"Well, that's one way to put it." said Cewong awkwardly twiddling her fingers.

"_Haha! I win!_" said the other girl triumphantly, "Now tell me your name. If you don't, I'll have to ask my friend out there." she whispered conspiratorially, sticking her thumb towards the guard outside her door.

"Errrm...right. Oh, uh, and my name is Cewong." she mumbled, still feeling a bit apprehensive about the other prisoner.

"Cool! I'm Shikoba Varrick."

"Wait..._VARRICK_?" cried Cewong incredulously, "The same as _Varrick Global_!?"

"Oh, so _nooow_ she shows some interest." huffed the other girl, examining her nails with an air of false pretension.

"Wow, I'm sorry..._wow_, it's an honor!" said Cewong, eagerly sticking out a hand.

Shikoba looked down from her hand to her face, making no move to reciprocate.

"_Gurrrrl_...normal teenagers don't do that." she smirked, "But you're not normal, are ya?"

Cewong stared at her, feeling the slightest bit affronted and put down.

"Hey, no offense though. I mean, I'm not normal either. In fact, the only reason my memories haven't been wiped yet is 'cuz they need me to invent stuff."

"Wait, _WHAT!?_" cried Cewong, "They're going to wipe my memories!?"

"Probably. Well...not all of them, of course." said Shikoba nonchalantly, "They're going to interrogate you first so they can figure out how to selectively reprogram your mind so that you'll be better suited for their society again!" she said with sardonic enthusiasm.

"Why? I'm not even dangerous! I'm just fifteen! And they're just going to throw me back in the world afterwards? Then I won't be...well..._me_ anymore!"

"Well, no matter what happens, they at least won't do it until you're a bit stronger." grinned Shikoba, stretching out on her ratty mattress.

"Why?"

"Well, most prisoners have some deeper secrets that they would rather not give out. Especially ones that might endanger family or friends." replied Shikoba, tilting her head to the side, "In those cases, they might have to do a little bit..._erm...'rigorous physical persuasion.'_"

Cewong twitched uneasily. Somehow, she had been hoping against all odds that the rumors about this prison had been false. That perhaps her trip would not encompass any pain–_no._ No, not just pain. The prisoners here are forced to bare their soul and lose their minds. In her opinion, that was a fate almost as cruel as death.

"Hey, don't be too scared." said Shikoba, "Why don't you just tell me everything now! I mean, they probably have cameras recording our conversation, so might as well, right? It'll probably save you a tiny bit of pain if they knew stuff initially!"

Cewong glared.

"And I am actually kinda interested. How did a little runt like you manage to land yourself in such a wonderfully dangerous, state of the art prison?"

"Its kinda hard to explain..." said Cewong said gritted teeth.

"Lemme guess, you were one of those kids who had a sudden blossom in bending power and you didn't want to give it up? Or were you were one of those smart-mouths who had the system all figured out, like myself?" asked Shikoba, puffing out her chest proudly. Then, she deflated and looked at Cewong thoughtfully before saying, "Actually, just kidding. You are neither smart nor powerful."

"Hey!" said Cewong indignantly, "I'm smart! And I'm not a bender!"

"Just tell me then! It's not like we have anything else to do in this little dump."

"Fine. I found some ancient archives with information about...about...the _Avatar._" whispered Cewong, "And I was really curious about it, because there is really no information about it anywhere. So I-"

"Wait a sec, where did you find them? How come nobody else destroyed them yet?"

"They were in a cave a few miles from where I live, and it had the weirdest little cubbyholes-"

"Why am I not surprised that you pick around in caves?"

"_Hmff._" huffed Cewong indignantly.

"Hey, sorry I damaged your poor fragile ego." smirked Shikoba, "Okay, continue. I won't interrupt."

"_Hmmf._ Anyways, somebody found out about it and these two policemen followed me into the cave later that night when I wanted to take pictures, and I panicked and tried to run away but then they tasered me and..."

Here, Cewong trailed off, not certain if she should bother explaining the next part. Especially now that she herself had hazy memories about what actually happened.

"Hey," nudged Shikoba, "You alright? What happened then?"

"Erm...I think I summoned a demon fox."

"_WHAT!?_" cried Shikoba.

She leapt off the bed and seized Cewong by the ears, yanking her face forwards to peer into her eyes maniacally. Then, after a second, the older girl calmed down, releasing Cewong's ears as she slouched back on her mattress, legs crossed.

"Okay, I believe you." smiled Shikoba as her face settled into an expression of blissful understanding.

Cewong rubbed her throbbing ears and gawked at Shikoba, who was now staring vacuously into space.

_She's a complete spaz._

Her cellmate had no filter or stability in her words or her actions, but still seemed unnervingly intelligent. Cewong had never met anyone with such an acute capability of irking people. It made her wonder: _how did such a smart person end up in a prison?_ Was she so perceptive that it wouldn't even be safe to erase her memories before allowing her back to society?

"_Why are you still here?_" asked Cewong, half to herself.

"You asking why they haven't killed me yet?" smirked Shikoba with a raised eyebrow.

"W-what, _no!_" sputtered Cewong. She hadn't even considered that they would kill people! Would she be so dangerous that they'd have to kill her? How did she never hear about this before?

"Aw narts. I just stole away your innocence, didn't I?" said Shikoba, smirk growing even wider, "You're so easy to manipulate, little girl. You just gobbled up everything the world says, don't you?"

Cewong, glowered at her for what seemed like the millionth time that day, but decided to ignore her comment and change the topic.

"Why didn't they erase your memories?" she asked.

"I told you before, I invent stuff for them! How could I not! I was the person who was supposed to inherit Varrick Global...but then I started poking around and I got arrested too and I ended up here. My grandma was probably ready to disown me." she trailed off a little here, coming down from her state of deranged euphoria for once.

"_Oh_. Um, I'm sure my parents are proba-"

"I haven't seen her since. And it's really crappy!" interrupted Shikoba rudely, "I have a nagging suspicion that she's brainwashed."

"Well that sucks for you!" snapped Cewong uncharacteristically.

She was normally quite mellow, but being around this rude, caustic, arrogant girl grated on even _her_ nerves. Plus, the dizzying feeling of worry, shame, and homesickness did nothing to quell her oncoming frustration.

"It does suck! Thanks for agreeing!" said Shikoba, her perpetual grin back in place, "Grams was such a nice lady too."

"Wait, what about your parents?" asked Cewong, "Why did you only mention your grandmother?"

"Oh. Welllllll, my parents died on their honeymoon. I was born out of wedlock, you see." said Shikoba to Cewong's confused expression, "It was quite a scandal! Anyways, they finally got married when I was two, and went on this awesomely dangerous honeymoon and never came back. I don't even remember what they looked like." she said thoughtfully, "Although I was told that I looked like my dad."

"Oh...I'm sorry. I can't imagine how much you miss them." said Cewong awkwardly, "But at least they'll be proud that you're still carrying on the business, even if it is from within prison, right?"

"HA! Not really. I don't miss them at all...can't miss what you never had right?" she said brightly, "Besides, they probably had a _planned accident._"

"A...what?"

"A planned accident! You see, dad broke off the company's partnership with the "Order of An", and they-"

"_Geez, are _all_ rich people associated with the order?_" muttered Cewong.

"Or are all people associated with them rich? Real food for the brain huh?" said Shikoba mischievously, "Okay, anyways, dad broke off the partnership with the Order of An just a few months before his honeymoon. I've never met anyone from within the order, but I can't imagine that they'd be too happy about losing an important ally! So yah. Dad didn't want to continue making crap for them. And here I am, ruining his goal. _Hmmf._"

"Why don't you stop? Oh wait, is it because they'll erm..."

"No. They won't kill me," said Shikoba, reading Cewong's mind, "But they might kill someone else!"

"What do you mean?" asked Cewong.

"I don't know, maybe Grams?" shrugged Shikoba, "Or they threaten to hurt other prisoners in front of me. Like yourself, remember!?"

"Wait, you knew the guard might have killed me? And you still made fun of him!?"

"Well, no, they wouldn't have. They might have tortured you, but they would do that anyways!"

"Well there's gotta be something you can do!"

"Nope. There's literally nothing. I've even tried to commit suicide!" she said brightly, "Didn't work. That's why they have a guard posted in front of the door now. After I tried it that one time, they healed me up and immediately did some crappy stuff to other prisoners when I was watching. It's pretty awful to have a sense of humanity in those cases you know! Now they really don't need to guard me, because I'm not risking it again."

Cewong curled up into a ball on her mattress, sickened by how casually Shikoba talked about matters of life and death.

All of a sudden, a shout in from the hallway announced, "_LIGHTS OUT!_"

As the room was engulfed with complete darkness, Cewong looked up at the narrow window in the ceiling, surprised to find that it was already past twilight. She could see harsh orange light glaring into the black sky, turning it into a weird purplish haze that obscured the stars. She sighed and slumped into her mattress, not even bothering to settle into the threadbare blankets.

Out of the blue, she heard a tiny, chilling groan, so soft and deep it was almost imperceptible.

"_Shikoba!_" muttered Cewong with trepidation, "_Was that you?_"

"Nope!" whispered the other girl, wide eyes staring blankly towards the dark ceiling, "I must have forgotten to mention, we're right next to the interrogation rooms. You should be flattered. They reserve this end of the corridor for particularly dangerous victims!"

"What? Why?" hissed Cewong, flinching as she heard another pained moan in the dark.

"Its all mental, you know?" mumured Shikoba, fixating her unnerving blue gaze back on Cewong, "The sound of other people's pain really wears you down. But don't worry. You get used to it after a while. Pretty screwed up, huh?"

Cewong swallowed before exhaling shakily.

"This particular guy, the one that you're hearing now, they've been going at him for the better part of two weeks. He must have some pretty crucial information." prattled Shikoba insensitively, "Too bad we can't hear any clear words, in case he confesses. I'm trying to piece everything together, you know? None of it makes sense. Nothing about the nature of our world! Oh well, I'm never leaving anyways, so I can't even tell anyone on the outside. After a while, you'll probably have to leave and I'll be all alone again."

This prompted Cewong to look over. She hadn't even considered that her cell mate had been alone for so long. Could she have been going insane from it? Did it create her complete lack of compassion and stability? She surely wasn't normal, but Cewong could not tell if it was from eccentric ingenuity lack of human interaction.

Cewong glanced over, feeling more than a little alarmed by the fact that Shikoba was still staring blankly at the ceiling, wide awake as if she had no intention of ever sleeping. When another low, hair raising groan sounded from the adjacent room, Shikoba didn't even blink, although her eyes did seem to glaze over slightly.

Perhaps the grim prison was more distressing than she let on.

Cewong pressed her palms into her ears before shrinking into a tiny ball as close to the wall as possible. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to suppress all of her riotous emotions and fall asleep.

No such luck. Between her concern for her psychotic cellmate, shame, dread and sickening fear, magnified tenfold by the tortured sounds coming from the adjecent room, Cewong had no hope of getting any sleep.

She braced herself for a long night of insomnia.

* * *

a/n: I'm have been reading to much Poe lately. (Jk, I've actually only read two things by him.)

Okay, important info: Cewong is very short and naive (I probably didn't need to tell you that) and Shikoba means "feathered water snake" in Sioux, I think. Varrick Global has passed down through the family for 500 years (not realistic, I know). The Order of An is an group of dudes that may or may not show up later. And "AN" (Pronounced as "ahn"/án/安) means "safe/stable" in Chinese.

Review!


	7. Chapter 7

a/n: Hello, I am back with more crappy chapters.

You remember what I said about this being a nice, progressive society to live in? Well, I change my mind. It's actually kind of Leninist: wonderful and strong and efficient for ignorant and compliant people, and dangerous for others.

Also, there will be some gore in the middle. Oh ya, and nothing belongs to me.

* * *

Cewong blinked blearily, feeling the uncomfortable tugging of a salty crust clinging to her eyelashes. Her eyelids had the heavy protuberance of sleep deprivation, a feeling that she was definitely not used to. It was like this prison drained all of the peace in her, any ability to sleep, to think, to dream.

Then, she noticed a long droning, clicking noise, and she turned to the corner of the cell where she remembered there being a desk.

To her surprise, Shikoba was sitting there, typing away at a keyboard. Her back was hunched over and dim yellow light flooded out of the small lamp onto her face. Laying around her was a mess of books, diagrams of Qi points, complicated sketches, and lists full of long, scientific-sounding words. On the screen of the monitor, Cewong could see some sort of article with Shikoba's typed notes on the side.

Suddenly, Shikoba let out a little growl and punched the steel wall, causing Cewong to give a startled jump.

Her mattress squeaked and Shikoba whipped around at the sound.

"Hey! You're awake!" she exclaimed happily.

"Yeah." said Cewong groggily, "What are you doing?"

"Making stuff. Well...thinking about how to make stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Designing an experiment for the effects of electromagnetic waves on Qi points and surrounding nerves." grinned Shikoba, "Care for me to elaborate?"

"Erm, not unless you want to." said Cewong politely.

"'Kay. I don't really. I've been thinking about this crap for too long!" said Shikoba, hopping out of her chair and stretching. As she reached her hands towards the ceiling, a series of _cracks_ came from her spine.

"How long were you working on that?" asked Cewong, rubbing her gritty eyes.

"I don't know...I started a little while after you fell asleep." replied Shikoba, starting to pace, "So, maybe like six hours or so?"

"Wait, so you didn't sleep all night!?" asked Cewong with concerned glance at the tiny window on the ceiling. Judging from the colorless sky, it was just barely dawn.

"Nah. Wasn't sleepy." said Shikoba unconcernedly, "Although I do have a bit of a headache now!"

"Oh. I'm sorry." said Cewong, "Do you want to sleep now?"

"Nope! I would like some nice bitter black tea though!" she replied, "In fact..."

Shikoba strode to the door in the exit and crouched down, pressing her ear against it. For a few seconds, the other girl just stood still and listened. Then she turned back to Cewong and smirked.

"The guard is snoring like a baby moose-lion." she whispered triumphantly while standing up, "I'm going to give him a surprise."

Then, she drew back her leg for a moment before slamming her heel into the door, adding another small dent.

A muffled exclamation of _"GAH!"_ could be heard from the other side of the door.

"Hey sleeping beauty!" she called to the other side of the door, "You wanna get me some tea?"

There was only silence.

"Oh well. It was worth a try." she said ruefully, "I was really hoping for something caffeinated though."

"Caffeine is very addictive." stated Cewong, "It might be harmful if-"

"I know it's addictive, silly!" grinned Shikoba, "It's even more addictive when it's mixed with dextromethorphan, astragalus extract, sugar, and a touch of heroin."

"And how would you know this?" said Cewong, a bit irritated that the other girl was flaunting her knowledge.

"They make me go out sometimes to experiment in the labs. I actually found out how potent it was by accident. I got curious and tried a crap ton!" she said thoughtfully, "It felt pretty awesome, but I couldn't stop shivering and sweating and vomiting for about a week afterwards. After just the first time, can you believe it?"

Cewong gaped at her incredulously. That was so incredibly stupid that Cewong wondered if it was another attempt to kill herself.

"That _was_ kind of reckless, wasn't it?" said Shikoba proudly, "Although I'm quite sad that I discovered it. Now they're using to loosen up prisoners."

"Wait, how?" asked Cewong warily.

"Well, first they see if giving the prisoner the drug will make them loopy at enough to spill secrets on their own. If not, then they just keep feeding it to them until they build a lot of tolerance." explained Shikoba pragmatically, "Then, the dosage suddenly stops and when the prisoners are in severe withdrawal, they'll reveal almost anything to get another hit."

"Well, at least that's not as bad as, like, physical questioning." said Cewong in a sad attempt at optimism, "Probably not as painful."

Shikoba raised and eyebrow.

"You know, it's a lot more humiliating though. Totally changes your nature." said Shikoba, "In fact, I'm surprised they haven't tried it on that guy yet." she continued, sticking her thumb to the wall of the adjacent chamber, where Cewong remembered hearing the pained groans from last night.

Suddenly, another sound came from the same there, but instead of moan or scream, it was a laugh, deep, loud and slightly delirious.

Shikoba and Cewong both jumped a little from the unexpectedness of it.

"_Ooookay_. Just kidding." said Shikoba, recovering quickly, "Seems like they used it after all."

Then after another moment of unnerving silence, they could hear two loud, echoing screams coming from the adjacent chamber. And if they listen even more carefully they could hear the tiniest spattering of liquid on the floor. It was followed by a loud screeching noise of ice on steel and the wrenching sound of a door being torn off of its hinges.

Almost immediately, boot steps thundered down the hallway outside as the officers rushed over to investigate. The sound of bullets, being fired in close quarters, echoed down the hallway but were not as numerous as the loud groans and screams and sickening splashes onto the ground. Then, Cewong noticed that there seemed to be a red liquid creeping through the crack at the bottom of their cell door, which she identified as blood in horror.

Cewong could not help herself as a scream bubbled out from between her lips and echoed throughout their little chamber. At the sound, the commotion outside of the cell stopped and the blood seeping underneath the door sprang up as if it had a life of its own. It started to crystallize and freeze from the bottom of the door slowly creeping up like crimson vines. Suddenly the door cracked down the middle and the two halves were pried to apart more easily than two slabs of clay.

Cewong backed into the back wall of the cell and flinched at the metallic wrenching noise. Shikoba, on the other hand, tilted her head to one side and peeked out the door in curiousity.

"Shikoba!" hissed Cewong, "Get back! Are you crazy!?"

"Nope! Come out! It seems relatively safe." said Shikoba, standing up straight and marching out the broken door recklessly.

Cewong wrapped her arms around her torso and delicately tried to step around the puddles of red liquid on the ground. Then, she took a deep breath before stepping out into the hallway...and she almost vomited.

The entire hallway was coated with spatters and rivulets of crimson liquid, sickening shades of dark blood congealing on the cold grey walls. And scattered arbitrarily around the edges were several unidentifiable lumps of crimson coated cloth and things too horrifying to think about.

For a moment, the scene was so lurid that Cewong was sure she was either in a dream, or watching an exceptionally well made horror mover. But when she inhaled, the dizzying stench of death, raw and heavy and metallic, was much too real to be her overactive imagination.

Her vision swam in front of her eyes, and she braced her hand on the wall to keep from falling, but drew back in horror when she felt her palm connect with a slick, warm, slippery surface.

Just then, something inside of her snapped, and she charged blindly away from the hallway, choking down a scream of terror and revulsion. She barely noticed all of the other opened cell doors and rioting prisoners; she barely noticed the sickening sliding of her shoes on the slippery, uneven floors; she didn't even notice the guards who seemed to be spontaneously exploding inside out and layering lumpty red onto everything in the general vicinity.

All she could feel was the primal, animalistic feeling of being trapped and agitated to get away...far, far away from all of this terrible carnage. She had to run in the outdoors and breath fresh air and feel the comforting presence of life, and growth, and sunlight on green grass. She had to, but she couldn't, and her desperation grew heavier and heavier in her fluttering chest.

At that moment, Cewong could've sworn she felt her sanity shattering into millions of pieces. Delirium surged up from the base of her spine, sweeping through her small body like a wave of fury and terror and hatred. Violent flashes of white and red and black rushed around riotously in her vision, completely obliterating any awareness of her surroundings. Her ears were filled with the sound of billowing winds and screeching metal, roaring fires and blood splattering around like raindrops in a typhoon.

Distantly, she heard a familiar yell before the storm of energy inside her slowed down, and she felt the sensation of falling again, limp as a ragdoll. With a resounding "whump," she landed in a pair of skinny arms and felt all the breath being knocked out of her.

"Ughhh." groaned Cewong, exerting an ungodly amount of effort to move her leaden muscles.

Suddenly, she felt a jolting and heard a deep male voice mumbling something indistinct. Then, a female voice coming from the person who caught her hiss something indignantly. It sounded like...

"Shikoba?" muttered Cewong, wrenching open her heavy eyelids.

At first, the bright sunlight blinded her, but slowly, her eyes began to register the incredible level of destruction around her. What used to be a prison now looked like the site of a simultaneous tornado, hurricane, earthquake, and atomic bomb detonation. The ground was littered with bits of debris, large cracks spiderwebbed across the concrete foundations, and metal sheets were twisted together and decorated with black soot and blood, like sick figures of abstract art. Heavy particles of dirt floated around hazily in the cold, morning light and settled on the twisted wreckage in a soft layer of grey. Through the ringing in her ears, she could hear muffled groans of people. _(Well, the surviving ones anyways.)_

For a moment, Cewong was stared at the carnage in shock before flailing out of Shikoba's arms and landing heavily on the ground.

"Wh...what happened?" she gasped kneeling down bonelessly.

"You did something incredibly powerful." growled the male voice she had heard arguing Shikoba earlier.

Cewong looked up and met a pair of cruel steely blue and grey eyes set deep into a long, dark face with high cheekbones and very hairy eyebrows. Bruises and blood was spattered liberally over his hollow cheekbones and square jaw, and his hair was choppy and matted. He looked like a gangly, half-starved, angry young man in his twenties, but it was hard to tell with all the injuries.

"Who are you?" asked Cewong as she stood up and shuffled away nervously.

"What are _you_?" he asked, looming up to her intimidatingly.

"A...a girl?" murmured Cewong nervously.

"Speak up." he growled, barrelling forwards to grab Cewong by the scruff of the neck with one arm. The other arm seemed to be twisted at an odd angle.

"HEY!" barked Shikoba, slapping his arm, "Be nice!"

The young man whipped around and glared at her, but dropped Cewong back on the ground anyways.

"Will you rat on me?" he snapped at the two of them bluntly.

"Nope." replied Shikoba with a complacent smile, although her eyes were narrowed into arrogant, mocking slits.

Cewong opened her mouth, then closed it, then looked at Shikoba a bit pleadingly. Why couldn't she have guts like her crazy acquaintance?

As if the other girl could read her mind, Shikoba slung an arm around Cewong's shoulders and said, "And little baby-girl here won't tell either."

Cewong scowled at Shikoba and shrugged off her arm before glancing nervously back towards the young man.

Suddenly, when he sound of a gunshot rang through the haze, the young man froze and his eyes darted back and forth in panic before he sprinted away.

"Hey, wait a sec!" called Shikoba, chasing after him.

Cewong, who was completely at loss, decided to follow Shikoba. She didn't know what to do otherwise, and she was terrified by the thought of being caught and thrown into a cell again, all alone and waiting to be brainwashed.

Luckily, running was a thing that always came easily to Cewong. She darted after Shikoba and the creepy young man who they met earlier, taking care not to trip over the debris littering the ground.

"Shikoba!" she panted, right as she saw a mop of brown hair turning the corner, "Shikoba! Why are you going after him?"

There was no response.

Desperate not to lose sight of them, Cewong put on another burst of speed and rounded the corner as well. Now, she was speeding towards the end of a dark alleyway, with what seemed like a large tunnel at the end.

Then, she hear a few angry growls and the sound of a scuffle coming from the mouth of the tunnel. As she got closer, Cewong could see that it was Shikoba, along with that other young man they had found earlier. Despite the young man being a great deal taller and heavier, Shikoba seemed to have the upper hand. (Literally, she was on top of him) The other guy seemed to be in a lot of pain, from what she could see.

"Stop!" shouted Cewong as she caught up to them, "What are you doing!?"

"Are you crazy, little brat?" snarled the young man through gritted teeth, "Keep it down. And get this crazy shithead off of me."

"Hey!" smiled Shikoba, giving another jerk on the arm she was twisting behind his back, "That really hurt my feelings!"

The young man hissed, and Cewong leaned in. Upon further investigation, Cewong found that the arm was bent in a very unhealthy angle.

"Shikoba!" she hissed in alarm, "Shikoba, I think his arm is broken!"

"No kidding!" she replied cheerily, "That's why I'm twisting it backwards!"

Cewong gaped. She was very surprised that Shikoba could be so cruel. The girl that she met had been caustic, yes, but also very charismatic and welcoming!

Well...now that she thought about it, there was always a soulless side to the other girl that was dangerously pragmatic and apathetic towards human suffering.

Suddenly, Cewong was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a distant wail of sirens.

Now the young man really started to squirm underneath Shikoba.

"Let go of me you insane bitch!" he snarled as the sirens approached them, "Do you want us to all get caught?"

"No. Do you?" she asked him patiently.

"NO! _Fine!_ I'll fucking help you!" he snapped, wincing once Shikoba let go of his arm, which flopped uselessly to the side. Then, he sprang up and ushered all of them down the damp, pitch black tunnel at the end of the alleyway.

Once they were far enough that they couldn't see any more light, the little group stopped for a moment. Cewong heard a wet scraping and trickling that echoed softly around the damp walls of the tunnel, which was magnified tenfold by her lack of vision.

"What's that noise?" she whispered in apprehension.

For a moment, everything was silent, then there was a sudden, her field of vision was illuminated by a ghostly blue glow.

Cewong stared at amazement, her eyes lit up by the water that was encircled around the young man's arm. It looked like the broken area of his arm was held together by a rippling, gel like blob of clear cerulean, which illuminated everyone's faces like a rippling blue candle.

"Whoa. What is that?" asked Cewong in amazement, "It's so beautiful. It looks like magic."

"It's bending." said the young man shortly.

Cewong gasped. No way! Bending was supposed to be violent, and hideous, and cause the user to be drunk on power! There was no way it could possibly flicker and glow like an exotic piece of art.

"Hey...you uh, you probably shouldn't do that," said Cewong awkwardly. "I mean, bending isn't good, erm...sir."

The young man gave her a very odd look for a moment, before bursting into a series of low, growly, _harumphing_ noises.

Cewong was growing concerned, before she realized that he was actually laughing.

"Did you seriously just call me _sir?_" mocked the young man, "I'm fuckin' twenty one, not eighty."

"Okay, do you have a name other than _Mr. 'Fuckin'-twenty-one-not-eighty'?"_ snarked Shikoba.

"Saviq." he snapped.

"Hello Saviq." said Cewong quickly, trying to relieve some tension, so Shikoba won't get impatient and get into a fight with Saviq again.

"And you are...Cewong? And Shikoba." he said, taking care to pronounce the older girl's name like it tasted vile.

Shikoba paid no attention to his insult, opting to squint at him suspiciously instead.

"Wait a minute...you've heard our names? You can waterbend? You have a super deep voice that can probably carry through steel walls? And you look thoroughly mutilated..." noted Shikoba, with a hand resting pensively on her chin, "You must be that one dude in the chamber next to ours! I had to listen to your screams for like two weeks straight, you know." she added.

Saviq whipped around and bared his teeth at her, his anger causing the glowing blue water to tremble and scatter light rays violently across the wall of the otherwise dark tunnel.

"So sorry that you had to spend two weeks sitting on your fat ass, coming up with more inventive ways for them to torture me!"

"Dude...you should be thanking me, not apologizing." smirked Shikoba, "Oh, and by the way, never call a girl fat! Yeesh, how are you ever going to get a lady friend if you're such a prick?"

"I don't care! Why would I thank you!?" he snapped, "_Psychopath._"

"They stuck a needle in you and gave you some black, gooey stuff today, right?"

"Yes..."

"And then you went nuts?"

"I-"

"It felt great, didn't it! Really great Qi booster! I came up with that thing. Tested it on myself." said Shikoba proudly, "They must have given up on using physical torture to open your mouth. Had to move onto the psychological stuff, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"The idea is to give it to you because it's ridiculously addictive." said Shikoba, "Once you start on withdrawal, you basically do anything you can to get your hands on more."

Saviq gaped at her. "Uh, I-"

"You probably have, like, six or so hours before you start shivering and blowing chunks." grinned Shikoba, "I really hope you have good self control, or a restraining device or something."

Saviq growled in anger whipped around, strutting down the hallway. He was still holding the glowing water to his arm.

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Cewong as she and Shikoba hurried after Saviq.

"Somewhere to lock myself up."

"Oh! You have a secret hideout!?" asked Shikoba excitedly.

Saviq opted not to reply.

"Are you sure nobody will be able to find us?" asked Cewong nervously. She she had no desire to be rediscovered.

"No."

"Did you cut the tracking devices out of your body?" asked Shikoba.

"Yeah. You think I'm stupid enough to forget about those?"

"Yes." smirked Shikoba.

Saviq gave a long suffered sigh.

Cewong ducked her head in embarrassment. She hadn't even considered it.

* * *

A while later, they arrived at a narrow river of raw sewage, oozing lethargically down the concrete canal. Occasionally, a bubble would rise to the surface and release a nauseating pocket of fumes into the air. The indistinguishable shades of brown sludge reflected dull light streaming out of a tiny crack from above.

Without hesitation, Saviq jumped in with a gooey _splash_, and Shikoba followed suite.

Cewong, on the other hand, was clutching her mouth and trying not to vomit. How were the other two so tolerant? She was disgusted, but could not help but admire their grit.

"Brat." snapped Saviq glaring at her, "Hurry up."

Cewong scowled. He was one of the biggest jerks she had ever met.

"I actually have a name!" she said indignantly, "And why do we have to go in there?"

"Because I said so." said Saviq obstinately, "Now get in if you don't want to get caught and executed."

Cewong held her breath and stoically splashed into the gritty liquid. Then, Saviq used bending _(oh no!)_ to create a shield so their faces would remain clean at least. However, the waterbent shield didn't block the stench.

Unable to contain herself, Cewong burst out, "It smells terrible."

"Stop complaining. It'll get better." replied Saviq, as they entered a tunnel and became completely submerged by the rancid sludge and darkness.

"How would you know?" snapped Cewong petulantly, hoping that Saviq wasn't just leading them down the tunnel to drown them.

"Let's just say I'm well acquainted with this area."

Cewong eyed him suspiciously. Had he used this place as a hiding place before? Was he a bending criminal?

"Why do you know this area so well?"

Saviq seemed to deliberate a moment before answering, "I used to practice waterbending here."

"But people would get suspicious!" said Cewong, "If you were doing something wrong, why didn't you just do it at home?"

"I lived in an orphanage." he replied shortly.

"O...oh." said Cewong awkwardly, "Uh, I'm sorry."

Cewong couldn't see his expression since he walked with his back turned to her, but she could have sworn that he rolled and his eyes.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, Shikoba asked, "Hey, did you know this used to be the site of an iron mine?"

"So?" snapped Saviq.

"And it's close to the sea!"

"Why do I give a fuck?"

"Conductivity! _Duh._ Holographic subsurface radar is impeded by the presence of conductive materials such as metal or salt infused soils!"

"I understood none of that."

"Idiot." sighed Shikoba happily, "That means nobody can track us here!"

"Why didn't you just say that to begin with?"

"Why do you have to be such a brainless thug?"

"Why can't you keep your humongous mouth shut?"

"Why can't you just shush and do your magic sewage water thing?"

Suddenly, Saviq stopped in his tracks, causing Shikoba to crash into his back and Cewong to crash into Shikoba's. Then, he turned around and stared at the two of them very seriously, boring into their eyes. He looked somber and a little lost.

"Why do trust me?" he asked suspiciously.

"That, my dear, is a great question!" replied Shikoba cheerily, completely disregarding Saviq's grave mood.

She gave no further explanation, and for the next five minutes, the three of them trudged along the tunnel in absolute silence.

By the time they reached the end, the water was mostly clear and reduced to a small trickle that only reached their ankles. The air was also fresher, much fresher than the other end. From what Cewong could see, they had arrived in a massive, box-like, concrete cavern. Weak light filtered into the chamber from a tiny grate in the fifty meter ceiling, and there were many other tunnels lining the flat walls. Some were rough brown stone and naturally occurring, and made of rusty metal gilded over concrete. The entire space was filled with the sound of small trickles and drips of water.

"Where are we?" she whispered, her voice echoing around the high, damp walls.

"Almost there." replied Saviq, headed for a medium-sized cavern extending to the right.

It was pitch black again, but Saviq seemed to know where he was going perfectly well. It was almost like he had an uncanny sixth sense, allowing him to avoid crashing into the wet, slimy walls of the cave. On the other hand Cewong and Shikoba tripped along blindly, running their fingers along the sides of the tunnel, but still somehow managing to faceplant into the walls repeatedly. Cewong could've sworn that the walls were deliberately jumping in front of her face.

"Hey Savage," said Shikoba, "Can't you do that glowy water thing so we can see better?"

"No."

"_Pleeeeeeaaaaaase?_"

"No."

"Why?"

"It takes energy, moron."

"Oh, _I'm_ the moron."

"Yes."

"Am not!"

"Not gonna respond."

At that, Shikoba managed to convey all the petulance of a three-year-old in a single, indignant _"hmmf!"_

Cewong trailed along after the two of them, feeling faintly jealous of Saviq for monopolizing all of Shikoba's attention. She knew it was unreasonable, but Shikoba was actually the first person who actually accepted her for being a complete weirdo. Strangely enough, this callous nineteen-year-old genius, almost her polar opposite, was better suited to being her friend than any of the other people who lived in the same community, went to the same school, and were of equal social standing as her. But then Saviq, the rude, obscene crazy thug, had to come along and capture all of her potential friend's attention. It was unfair.

But if Cewong were honest with herself, she really was the odd one out. And not just because she was the youngest! The other two were smart and competent, and she was just this stupid little girl who only knew how to accidentally destroy stuff.

Suddenly, she heard Saviq say "Stop."

"Are we there?" asked Cewong.

"No." said Saviq, "We got to a river."

For a few moments, she heard water sloshing around in the blackness before, in a flash, she was slammed backwards by a wall of water with the force of a firehose.

Cewong shrieked as the icy cold liquid blasted beneath her clothing and ripped through her hair. When it stopped, Cewong stood there, tensed up and dripping cold, with chattering teeth and skin that felt like it was rubbed raw by frosty sandpaper.

"_Wh-what was that f-f-for?_" she stuttered, shivering so hard that her knees knocked together.

"You smelled." growled Saviq.

Then, she felt a weird sensation like water droplets were crawling upwards, creeping up from the soles of her sandals, vaporizing from her clothing and lifting her hair upwards as moisture was removed from her scalp. Now she was...dry. And clean

"Wow, that actually felt nice." stated Shikoba, "I almost wish I was a bender now. Never gonna need to take an actual shower again."

"You're the most disgusting woman I've ever met." grumbled Saviq, footsteps echoing away.

"Hey, where're you going?" asked Shikoba.

"We need to go into the river."

"Why?"

"There's a cave inside that's completely concealed. And further downstream, it empties into another cave by the sea."

"Aw, so we'll need to swim?" said Cewong dejectedly.

"No. Just follow me."

Cewong did, and was surprised to find that her feet sank into damp sand.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Making a bubble." he said.

Cewong reached out a hand and was surprised that it could reach through a solid wall of water. It reminded her of the time that she was in a boat with her family and she trailed her hands through the water in a lake, but vertically. It was cool, that much was true, but it was still bending, which was a little weird to her. She still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that Saviq's bending was useful and pretty.

"Why do you still have bending?" asked Cewong.

"I discovered it late." said Saviq, "I was old enough to have the sense not to tell anyone."

"But, didn't you know that it was, I dunno, weird?" asked Cewong,with a nagging suspicion that he left something unsaid.

"I was a power hungry little shit, okay?"

"But power if not good if it makes you liable to abuse others-"

"That sounds like it came straight out a propaganda textbook." snapped Saviq. He sounded congested and even crankier than before.

"But it's true!"

"Well my power addiction is keeping you from drowning right now, so I would shut up." he sniffed.

Cewong huffed, feeling very offended. But she stayed quiet. Saviq was right; although he was the world's biggest jerk, he had saved her neck innumerable times over the course of just a few hours, so she decided to try and be at least a little friendly.

Plus, the dark, damp silence was too suffocating when it was only filled with the sounds of their breathing.

"Hey Saviq, how is your arm feeling?" she asked.

"It's healed." he mumbled.

"Wait, WHAT?"

"I said, it's healed." he repeated, slowly and patronizingly.

"So that was what the glowy thing was for?" asked Shikoba in excitement.

"Y-"

"Can you detox?" she asked.

"Why?"

"You're still chock full of drugs, right?"

"I feel fine." he snapped.

"That's 'cuz you're chock full of drugs." argued Shikoba, "You don't think you'd be able to just get up and bend after being tortured and Qi blocked for two weeks straight, right?"

"I know!"

"Wait, what happens when the drug wears off?" asked Cewong warily.

"He crashes." replied Shikoba

"And he won't be able to hold the water anymore?"

"Nope!"

"Then we'll drown!" cried Cewong in alarm, "How much longer do we have?"

"I dunno. It's already been about seven hours since we got out, right?" said Shikoba nonchalantly, "So it should start soon."

"You just had to come up with that shitty drug, didn't you?" grumbled Saviq.

"Yup!"

"What did you even put in it?"

"Mostly stimulants, and some plant thingy that makes a wicked tea. Oh, and some heroin. "

Saviq groaned. Then sniffled. Then gave a thick yawn.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Cewong with concern.

There was no response.

Cewong was growing more concerned now. What if he started already?

Lost in her thoughts, she accidentally ran into the wall of water. Irritably, she shook droplets off of her hands and scooted further inside, accidentally tripping into Saviq's back. It felt gross and feverish, hot and clammy at the same time.

"Oh, sorry!" she said, backing away and wiping her hands on her pants. This caused her to crash backwards into the wall of water again.

She braced her hand against the liquid and felt slightly alarmed that it seemed to be seeping over her hands. The air felt thicker and warmer, like their breaths were being concentrated...

"Saviq?" she asked, "Can you make this bubble larger?"

"What? Oh sorry..." he said in a thick voice.

Now Cewong was very worried. The way he replied to her was actually...polite. And he seemed to be breathing more heavily as well.

For a moment, the walls of water pressing them together seemed to expand back into a comfortable space. But a few minutes later, they started contracting again, quivering in tandem with Saviq, who seemed to be exerting an ungodly amount of strain.

"Saviq?" said Cewong.

"Shut up."

"How much farther, tough guy?" asked Shikoba.

"Not far." he hissed.

Cewong could feel him shaking violently beside her, his breath coming in short pants. The walls of water were slowly growing closer, the ceiling of it occasionally leaking down drips of cold spring water.

"You'd better hurry." murmured Shikoba.

Cewong was alarmed to hear that even Shikoba sounded a little worried.

"_Ugh_." gasped Saviq as he stumbled.

And dropped his arms.

And the water surged forwards.

"Ahh!" cried Cewong.

The last thing she heard was Saviq shouting a muffled expletive of "_FUCK!_" before she was swallowed by frigid, swirling black water.

* * *

She frantically flailed around in the water, trying to find her way to the surface despite not having any sense of direction. But it was hopeless; all she managed to to do was smash into a stone wall, which clipped her shoulder painfully.

She let out a yell of pain, but only felt bubbles leaving her mouth.

_No, come back air!_

Her lungs felt like they would burst, and her fingers and toes began to lose feeling. Desperately, her mouth opened, trying to take a breath of air on its own but succeeding only it filling her lungs with water. Her heart began to beat painfully in her chest as her limbs began to burn...

_Spirits, this can't be the end!_

Then, she felt a strong hand grab her hair from the roots and begin to pull her forwards, but her scalp was so numb she could barely register any pain. She was buffeted back and forth by a pair of kicking legs as her limbs trailed around limply.

Actually it didn't feel so bad after a few minutes. Other than her chest burning a little, the rest of her body was actually pleasantly warm and tingly. Her mouth was full of water that was relatively clean and fresh tasting, and the current was made a soothing, gushing noise that was peaceful compared to how it thundered in her ears before. Was this what death felt like? Would death still allow her to be cognizant? Perhaps she could even continue to visit her dreams...

Then all of a sudden, her body lurched forwards and her head broke through the surface of the water.

Instinctively, her lungs contracted and took in huge, horrendously loud gasps of stale air. A swirling, heated rush of oxygen flooded through her body, to her aching head, down through her spine, until her entire body was a burning bundle of exhausted, aching relief.

Cewong coughed up a mouthful of water, hacking out all the moisture in her lungs. To her left, she could hear Shikoba and Saviq doing the same, resounding coughs echoing all around the airy cavern.

"Are ya'll feeling like crap?" murmured Shikoba weakly.

"_Nughhhhh_." groaned Cewong, collapsing against the stony bank of the underground cave, her eyelids too heavy to open. The darkness was more comforting anyways.

"Good! That means you're alive!" Shikoba coughed.

Cewong sighed at Shikoba's optimism.

"Sorry I failed." rasped Saviq from the left of the cave.

"S'all good_._" replied Shikoba wearily.

A heavy silence rested upon all of them before Cewong heard a tiny splash followed by Shikoba gasping "_Whoa!_"

Cewong opened her eyes to see what was the matter, and to her surprise, the entire cave was illuminated by a soft, dark emerald glow coming out of quartz-like crystals. The large green gems grew out of the sides of the walls and lined the ground of the cave, casting an eerie din over all of their faces. She remembered seeing similar crystals when her parents took her on vacation to Omashu and the Cave of Two Lovers.

"The glow...it's dimmer than last time." gasped Saviq, dragging himself out of the water for a couple meters before collapsing on the stony ground in shivers.

"Well isn't that interesting." said Shikoba as she walked over to help him up, "Geez. You look like crap." she whistled as she grabbed one of his arms.

Cewong also heaved herself on her feet to help, alarmed that Saviq hadn't even bothered to give Shikoba a dirty look.

Together, the three of them stumbled over to the back of the cave and collapsed in a heap, not even bothering to dry off. Sleep was almost instantaneous.

* * *

a/n: 6000 fricken words!? I did not even realize how long this got. Also, apologies if the ending sounded rushed. I really just wanted to get this chapter finished. Thanks once again to all the readers and followers and favoriters! (Is that even a word?)

Review!


	8. Chapter 8

a/n: okay, this chapter might be a bit disturbing because Saviq's acting very crappy while undergoing withdrawal. So ya. Angsty.

Did you know that Shikoba is a male's name in Sioux? It kinda fits her personality. And "Saviq" means "knife" in inuktitut I think. (I actually spend ridiculous amounts of time thinking about what to name these people.)

And nothing belongs to me.

* * *

"Come on, you stubborn little brat!"

"_Fuck off._" muttered Saviq in a miserable, congested voice.

"Drink!" commanded Shikoba, while slapping his sweaty face, "You're going to shrivel up into a piece of human jerky if you don't!"

"_Ugh..._" groaned Saviq, turning his back on her, tossing back and forth restlessly on the cold stone floors. He sounded nasally, and his eyes were watery, bloodshot, and encircled by deep, dark bags of sleeplessness. His sick, haggard demeanor was only magnified by the sickly green light, washed onto his face by the glowing rocks.

Cewong lost track of how long they were in that cave, but it felt like just over a day. According to Shikoba, Saviq was now on his "crash" from whatever drug he was given in prison. In her health class, Cewong had learned about substance abuse and withdrawal, but nothing could have prepared her for actually witnessing it. Even mover clips with firsthand accounts from real people did not portray just how wretched it really was.

Saviq, a tall, stoic, and overbearing presence, was now curled in a tiny ball against the wall of the cave. He tossed and turned restlessly, groaning and whimpering and occasionally starting awake with a delirious shout of "_Attack?_"

All the liquid in his body seemed to be trying to exit his pores and eyes and nose. His torn and bloody shirt was plastered against his skin in thin ribbons stuck together with sweat, which was dripping off of his skin in like salty tadpoles. Every so often, he would give a ridiculously loud and disgusting sniffle before weakly rubbing his runny, red eyes.

Suffice to say, he looked very miserable.

"How are you feeling?" asked Cewong from where she was sitting on the other end of the cave.

"Shitty."

"Do you not have the ability to speak with clean language?" asked Shikoba in exasperation.

"Not when I'm feeling this spirit-damned awful."

"Oh, get over yourself." said Shikoba lightly, "I've been through it too."

"Well you're not going through it now." he grumbled.

"But when I _was_ going through it, I tried to get better instead of wallowing in self pity." said Shikoba, raising an eyebrow.

"That's probably because you had a perfect life until now." snapped Saviq in a nasally voice, "There's no reason to feel sympathy for you. You're the over privileged child of one of the most successful businessmen in the world, and you probably never had to suffer or work for anything."

Cewong cringed. What Saviq said seemed to be out of pure spite. Of course, he probably wasn't in a normal state of mind, but it was still pretty hurtful. She glanced over at Shikoba, and grew alarmed when she saw that the older girl had her back turned.

"Shikoba?" she said tentatively, "Shikoba, he's not serious, you know. He's not in a normal state of mind right now-"

"I know!" said Shikoba loudly, back still turned, "He's just a wimpy little girl."

"_You're_ the sheltered little girl." growled Saviq petulantly.

"I'm not sheltered. My parents are dead." stated Shikoba very plainly, "I didn't get to inherit my business. Well, I still had to invent, but it was not for me. It was for _them_. the State. And I was threatened with death. Not at the cost of my own life. At the cost of others. But it doesn't matter. Not really."

Then she turned around and smiled at the other two a little sadly.

"Sorry about that. I'm not very articulate right now, am I?" she said, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly before turning to Saviq and asking, "So what's your sob story?"

"I'm tired." he mumbled, turning away.

"Just talk. It's not like you can fall asleep in this state." said Shikoba a bit impatiently, "Who knows? It might even distract you from your self induced pity party."

"No."

"Please?" asked Cewong, "My mom said it's important to talk to others."

"And I'm sure you have crowds of people fawning over _your_ every word." he snapped.

Cewong crossed her arms and frowned at him.

"At least tell me how you got your bending?"

"I discovered it." he said shortly.

"How old were you?" asked Cewong.

"Thirteen."

"Oh. And you didn't tell anyone?"

"No. There was no one to tell."

"You lived in an orphanage, right bub?" asked Shikoba.

"Yeah. A mile or so away from here. It overlooked the sea." said Saviq, bloodshot eyes staring blankly ahead.

Cewong and Shikoba gave each other a look.

"How old were you when you left the orphanage?" asked Shikoba, breaking away.

"Sixteen. I was supposed to be going to secondary school." said Saviq thickly.

"What do you mean by 'supposed to'?" asked Shikoba with a raised eyebrow.

"I still attended the first year of classes." he replied tonelessly, "But I met some dude at a party and he offered me some poppies-"

"What?" asked Cewong

"Opium."

"Oh."

"I asked where he got it from. He took me there-"

"Wait, did you use the poppies?" asked Shikoba.

"No. I didn't trust him."

"Then why'd you follow him?"

"I wanted to turn him and his little gang in. To the police." clarified Saviq, "I got qi blocked by his buddies instead."

"So they knew you were a bender!?"

"No, you dolt. Qi blocking freezes certain nerves regardless of whether the person is a bender or not."

"Wait, what happened then?"

"They threatened to kill me. I sucked up and said I wanted to join." said Saviq with an expression of self loathing, "They probably didn't believe me at first. Not until I said I was a bender."

"You told them?" asked Cewong incredulously, "What did they think?"

"They were frightened...and reverent." said Saviq, rubbing his nose, "It was one of the only times they got to see someone with bending still intact."

"Did they kick you out?" asked Cewong, "Even they must have minded a little."

"No. They were criminals. Scruples didn't matter. Societal norms didn't matter." he sneered, "I visited more and more often, and they accepted me."

"There must've been a reason," said Shikoba thoughtfully, "People don't just accept each other."

"You accepted me." said Saviq suspiciously, "Unless you're just using me because you've figured it out..."

"Figure what out?" asked Cewong, "Your waterbending?"

"Yeah," said Shikoba with a small smirk. "What _did_ I figure out?"

Saviq regarded her with a very bland expression before turning away with a shudder and a very moist sniff.

"What is it?" asked Cewong, turning her head back and forth between Saviq and Shikoba.

Shikoba stared into Saviq's eyes with a knowing look. After a moment, Saviq turned away with a scowl.

"Nothing." mumbled Saviq as he huddled against the wall, "I'm going to sleep."

Cewong stared at him, burning with curiosity. But she was respectful enough to let Saviq sleep. She just hoped that Saviq's secret wouldn't put them in any more danger than they were already in. Suddenly, something occurred to her. Why didn't the healers in the prison debend Saviq? He's been there for two weeks already!

She opened her mouth and turned to wake Saviq, but he was already asleep and she couldn't bring herself to wake him. Instead, she let out a small sigh and tilted her head back against the wall, shutting her eyes. The air in cave was growing more and more oppressive, filled with moist breaths and heavy, untold secrets.

* * *

She hadn't even realized that she fell asleep, until she started awake to the sound of splashing. With great intrigue, she wrenched open her eyes and looked around, wincing at the pain in her neck from getting stuck in an awkward position. To her surprise, Shikoba was tossing handfuls of water at Saviq, who was barely reacting. Occasionally, he would shiver or blink when water crept into his eyes, but other than that, he was still curled in the exact same position as yesterday, staring blankly ahead.

"Guys?" she asked in a sleep roughened voice.

"Stupid jerkface refuses tp drink anything or talk to me." smiled Shikoba, giving Saviq a faux affectionate ruffle in his hair.

"Shikoba! Stop it!" cried Cewong indignantly, "Can't you see he's cold?"

She took off her dirty shawl and draped it over Saviq. He gave a small shiver but made no move to even look up at her.

"Come on Saviq, fight it!" snapped Shikoba, "Send the stupid symptoms to the depths of Koh's lair, you little wimp."

Suddenly, Saviq sat up and doubled over, clutching his stomach. He bent down and rested his forehead against the slimy stone floor before shuddering with a series of dry heaves. Thankfully, nothing came out, but it was still horrifying to watch. Then, he flopped back onto his side with a low groan and a face contorted with discomfort. His cheekbones stuck out starkly against his dirty, sweaty face, which looked green and grey and glistening from the light of the glowing emerald rocks. Laboured breaths exited his bloodless, chapped lips.

All in a flash, he snapped his eyes open towards Cewong and Shikoba, glowering at the two with delirious blue orbs of desperation, surrounded by dark circles of fatigue. He pushed himself into a sitting position, limbs shaking from exertion.

"Get me a little...please...a little..." he rasped, staring like Shikoba like he wanted to bore a hole through her forehead.

"Nah. I don't think I will." said Shikoba, staring at him innocently.

"_Get some now_." Saviq all but snarled, rising unsteadily onto his feet, "You know where it is. In the prison. You..."

"She can't get out!" reasoned Cewong hastily, flinching when Saviq gave her a nasty scowl, "She can't bend!"

"I do it myself." he growled, tottering over to the river, "I'll g-"

"Stop it, you idiot!" snapped Shikoba, impatiently snatching his arm and pulling him back.

Saviq whipped around and glowered at Shikoba, his flaky lips drawn over his canines like a feral animal.

Cewong wasn't sure what happened next, but one moment, Shikoba was meeting Saviq's eyes placidly, and the next she was writhing in the air.

"_What...what..._" she gasped, her body contorting and swimming in midair like a grotesque marionette. Saviq's eyes seemed to be pinning her into space; his pupils were contracted into tiny pinpoints, barely perceptible against the steely blue irises. On his temple, a dangerous-looking blood vessel stuck out, was pulsing like a frantic heartbeat. Sweat ran down his dirt-coated face in tiny rivulets and a few strands of coarse hair were plastered to his forehead.

Shikoba was glaring down at Saviq, the fury in her eyes barely masking her panic...and strangely enough...pity.

"Saviq?" asked Cewong, "What is..."

"Blood...blood _ben-OW!_" gasped Shikoba, shouting out in pain as her wrist was bent sideways.

All of a sudden, Cewong understood. This was the terrible secret that Saviq had been so eager to conceal. A pang of horror washed over her. _Bloodbending_. Just like…something she remembered reading…

But that was irrelevant now. Quick as a flash, Cewong leapt up and dug her fingers into a qi point on the base of Saviq's neck, near his collarbone.

It should've knocked him out cold. Instead, it only caused him to turn his attention to her as well.

At that moment, Cewong felt the most agonizing, horrible, crawly feeling as her blood froze in her veins. No matter how desperately her heart tried to beat, the liquids inside her stayed rigidly in place. Her chest burned with lack of oxygen and she felt like she could barely breathe. It was like her limbs were on fire, but she was simultaneously drowning on dry land.

But the moment her spent on Cewong was enough for Shikoba to break free and try to punch Saviq in the face. But immediately, he turned his attention back on her. This gave Cewong a break, which she used to qi block a line of nerves up his spine. But those didn't work either! The teachers in school told her that these points were guaranteed to works against benders!

_Is he fricken immortal of something?_

Hastily, before Saviq could try to bloodbend her again, Cewong slammed her small fist into his temple.

No fancy qi blocking was quick as effective a brute force like this.

With a small shout, Saviq crumpled onto his knees on the ground, clutching his head, and when his guard was down, Cewong qi blocked a series of points running up his exposed back. This time, it worked.

"Savage, that hurt my feelings." grimaced Shikoba from her tired position on the cave floor, "By the way, thanks Cewong."

"Your welcome, I guess." said Cewong, wincing as she moved her cramping limbs. Then, something occurred to her. This was the first time that Shikoba actually used her name. Somehow, this tiny little detail was strangely touching.

"Are you alright?" asked Cewong, walking over to Shikoba.

"Yep. Absolutely _peachy_."

Then, they heard a shuffling noise as Saviq sat up and leaned against the cave wall beside the river. He looked incredibly haggard.

_A bloodbender..._

She had heard that term used before somewhere...if only she could remember...

_Oh, that's right!_

In that first scroll from Jinora's archive, it said that Amon was a blood bender. But that couldn't possibly be true! And besides, what could bloodbending even be used for in a nonbending revolution?

Cewong glanced over at Saviq, remembering how she couldn't seem to qi block him.

Spirits! What if he used bloodbending to harder his own qi points?

That must've been how he kept the healers in the prison from debending him! So he _was_ almost invincible, if he could manipulate his own body fluids like that. With horror, Cewong recalled the haunting image of red blood seeping under her door, and all of the terrible, violent deaths at the hospital. Was that entirely Saviq's doing? Was he the one who drenched the entire prison in blood?

Cewong warily backed away from him.

"Well, well, well, mister, what do you have to say for yourself?" asked Shikoba patronizingly as she knelt down in front of him.

Cewong grabbed Shikoba's arm and tugged her back in alarm.

"Stop taunting him! That's how you started this mess in the first place!" she snapped.

"Oh, so it's my fault." grumbled Shikoba petulantly before turning back to Saviq, "You could have the decency to apologize, you know." she scolded.

"Sorry." said Saviq tonelessly.

"Wait, just like that? Like, no fight or anything?" asked Shikoba with a raised eyebrow.

Saviq only kept his eyes fixated on the ground in front of his feet, refusing to reply. This caused Shikoba to crawl up to him and duck her head down, peering up into his downcast face. She furrowed her brow, examining his face critically.

"Shikoba, don't do that." sighed Cewong halfheartedly, "And do you want to...um...sleep in shifts? To make sure he doesn't try to, know..."

The older girl stayed silent, poring over Saviq a moment longer.

"Nope! That won't be necessary." she exclaimed suddenly, flopping onto the ground and tucking her hands behind her head.

"How would you know!?" cried Cewong in frustration, "You don't exactly have the best judgement in the world!"

"'Course I do, babygirl!" smirked Shikoba.

"_Don't call me that!_" she snapped irritably.

"Mother of Yue, calm down!" said Shikoba, peering at her with wide eyes, "Go to sleep or something. I'll stay up if it makes poor wittle baby feel safer."

"But you didn't sleep last night..." said Cewong dubiously.

"Or the night before that!" replied Shikoba cheerily, "But I think the night before that, I slept at least four hours, which was nice."

Cewong stared at her incredulously, "Shikoba! It's unhealthy to get such little sleep!"

"I know, right?" she said, "I've just never been sleepy in that prison. Though I'm a little tired now."

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep first?" asked Cewong, even as she suppressed a yawn.

Shikoba turned her head sharply to the side.

"Nope." she smiled, staring at the ceiling contemplatively.

Cewong shook her head in frustration as she settled onto the cold stone floor, letting her body be taken over by fatigue.

* * *

The next few hours _(or were they days?)_ were torturous. Cewong felt like her stomach was trying to digest itself with hunger, she always felt cold and clammy from the disgusting moistness in the air, and the entire cavern smelled of stale odors of sickness and sweat. She missed the sunlight and open spaces of the outdoors. This tiny cave was much smaller than even her prison cell, and the walls looked like they were drawing closer every hour, trying to crush the three of them inside. Plus, they were starting to run out of air.

Saviq made no further moves to attack them afterwards, and let himself be qi blocked with dejected complacency. His demeanor added to the oppressive feeling within the tiny, condensed space of the cave. Cewong felt the dark mood strongly, but Shikoba's demeanor was largely the same, except for perhaps being a bit more maniacal than usual.

Suffice to say, Cewong was very miserable and cranky indeed. The cavern left much room for dark thoughs to pervade her mind.

Finally, after what felt like weeks of hunger, and darkness and headaches, Saviq finally mustered enough strength to bend again.

"Finally, we can go!" cheered Shikoba, skipping over to Saviq, who made kneading motions with his hands, causing the water to swell and wane along the entrance of the cave.

Cewong stood near the back warily. She couldn't understand how Shikoba could possibly feel comfortable standing in close proximity with someone who just bloodbent her. Of course, it was arguable that Saviq wasn't in his right mind when it happened, but still, shouldn't she be at least a little cautious?

"Hey, good job!" said Shikoba, slapping Saviq so hard on the back that he winced before giving a noncommittal grunt in response.

"Talkative, aren't we." said Shikoba leaning closer to him. Then she drew back with a face screwed in an expression of disgust.

"If you can bend now, then go take a bath," she grimaced, shoving him towards the water, "You smell like you've been cuddling with a pack of wet dogs."

Saviq gave her a halfhearted scowl before hobbling dejectedly out of the cave entrance.

Cewong waited until after he was out of sight before shuffling over to Shikoba.

"Can you be careful?" she hissed, "He's kinda dangerous!"

"Not really." replied Shikoba nonchalantly.

"Yes he is! How could you trust someone like that?"

"I don't trust him! I trust myself!" she answered smugly.

"What does that even mean?" asked Cewong in exasperation.

But before Shikoba could answer, Saviq trudged back into the cavern, sopping wet. He waved his arms around in a few fluid figure eights, drawing all the water into a little ball, which he tossed back into the river.

"Are you ready to go?" asked Saviq flatly.

"Yep! Let's get out of this little dump." said Shikoba, scratching the back of her scruffy mop of hair.

Wordlessly, Saviq formed a large bubble in the river and beckoned them inside. Cewong followed behind, trying to suppress her mistrust. Shikoba trusted him, right? And to be honest, Shikoba was almost never wrong when it came down to figuring out people. And besides, Saviq didn't seem like a bad person. Just sad and lost and drifting, like herself and perhaps even Shikoba was. Even though they'd known each other for a very short time, it seemed like the three of them were so intimate to each others' minds, bound by their collective purposelessness. Sometimes, it seemed they were living just for habit's sake, like leaves blowing arbitrarily in the wind, waiting to fall to the ground when the gusts stopped.

Occasionaly, she would even feel like she lost her soul. In the week or so that Cewong had been away from home, and her parents, and her real life, she'd never once felt regret, and she hated herself for it. She couldn't even force herself to think about her parents. Of course, she knew that she loved them, but not enough to find the strength to fight her inner desires in order to please with them. Inside, Cewong really wanted to be free and learn about the world and its ancient history, even if it was corrupted. She wanted to to be able to keep dreaming and exploring and floating away as free as the wind, never looking back. She didn't want to succeed in her formerly perfect life with its rigid Spartan society. Logically, this should've been a passing fancy, but Cewong always hoped that if she followed her instincts, all would end well.

And the worst thing that could happen was death.

To her, it was of frighteningly small concern.

What was her life? What was the point? She wondered why she was still trudging behind Saviq and Shikoba. Where did the two of them draw their strength from? Were they running on autopilot every day, just like she was?

These thoughts twisted themselves around in her head for hours as the three of them made their way through the lightless underground river. Finally, there seemed to be a small, barely perceptible twilight around them, as light filtered weakly through the water.

"Hey, are we almost at the end?" asked Shikoba.

Saviq gave a short nod and travelled forwards a little faster. Finally, when they were close enough outside for light to shine through the water, he said, "Take a deep breath. I'm going to burst the bubble so you can swim to the surface."

Cewong closed her eyes as cold, salty water crashed forwards and swept her up. Her head broke through the surface and she took the first breath of fresh air in days. Who knew that this pure, open, salt tinted air could be so delicious to breathe? And when she opened her eyes, they were on the surface of a small river, but so close to the delta that Cewong could see the sandy shores and sea, a few hundred meters away. In the background, a gorgeous red sunset painted itself across the sky. Warm twilight washed across the water. She turned and saw two other heads bobbing up and down in the river, and smiled at the thought that she wasn't alone.

How could she have been so stupid to even think about giving up? In her self pity, she forgot to think about all the beautiful things in life. But never again. Never again will she forget about an entire world to explore and appreciate for the rest of her life. Today marked the age of a new era for her, the start of a journey for self realization.

* * *

a/n: Okay, this was a bit of a filler. Did anyone suspect Saviq was bloodbender in the previous chapter? If you did, then good job! Have an internet cookie.

Once again, thanks to all the readers. You rock the world!

Review plz!


	9. Chapter 9

a/n: Hello, I have not updated in a while, cuz I kinda just picked away at this chapter as stress relief, so ya. Have another fillerish chapter.

Okay, we left off with Cewong, Shikoba, and Saviq coming out of the cave after Saviq suffered severe withdrawal. And nothing belongs to me.

* * *

"Get up! _Getupgetupgetupgetup!_" hissed a voice right next to Cewong's ear. She started awake with a gasp and listened in confusion at the wailing noises and red and blue lights flashing a small distance away, lighting up the midnight sky. She immediately sat up in alarm.

_Are those police sirens?_

She looked around and saw Shikoba shaking Saviq. Next to her feet was a large black bag.

"Shikoba! What's going on?" cried Cewong.

In response, Shikoba slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Shhhhh. I restocked!" she whispered, pointing to the black bag.

"_Ugh_...did you seriously steal those." grumbled Saviq as he heaved himself onto his feet.

"Well...yeah. But don't worry! It was a rich guy, and I gave the person some of the money I stole from the Dancer Triad anyways." said Shikoba lightly, "It's like they were shopping for me without knowing it!"

"You stole from a Triad?" snapped Saviq, "So now you went and made enemies out of other criminals on top of enemies in the state."

"Oh, just shut up and do your magic water." said Shikoba nonchalantly, "We're never returning here anyways, so it doesn't matter."

"What!? We aren't coming back?" asked Cewong as Shikoba hustled them over to the river.

"Nope! We'll probably be executed if we come back!" said Shikoba.

"Where am I going?" asked Saviq as they plunged into the river and he bent a watery roof.

"_Errrrrm_...I haven't thought about it?" said Shikoba with an tiny innocent grin.

"Surprise, surprise." sighed Saviq resignedly as they continued forwards on the damp riverbed, weak pale moonlight filtering through the river flowing above their heads.

"Oh! You know what?" said Shikoba, "I remember seeing a small cliff nearby. If we hurry, We'll probably make it there before the police track the location where we entered the river. It will impede their visibility if we head a course southwest, we can avoid visibility for like, I dunno, maybe a mile of so?" said Shikoba very quickly and excitedly, "Then, you can make a little current and we'll float away and it. Will. Be. Wicked!"

"That sounds really stupid." yawned Saviq.

"You gotta better idea?"

Saviq turned around and opened his mouth. Then closed it. Then opened again. Then gave her a dark scowl.

"Yep. Thought so." she said smugly, "Now giddyup seahorse!"

Saviq allowed a blob of water to drop onto her head in response.

Slowly, the muddy stones of the riverbed transformed to sand below their feet, and the moonlight grew dimmer and dimmer, filtered out by the deep blue ocean above. At that time, Saviq allowed the seawater to creep under their feet, until it felt like they were surrounded on all sides by a clear membrane. The air inside carried them up to the surface like a massive bubble.

Upon further observation, Cewong noticed that the water under her sandals were cold...and icy!

"Wow! You can freeze stuff?" she said with intrigue.

"Yes. Ice is a form of water, you know." said Saviq impatiently.

"I know! I just didn't think of it yet!" retorted Cewong.

"Well, you know now." said Shikoba before turning to Saviq, "Hey, can you also make an ice boat thingy?"

"I think a submarine would be safer." replied Saviq.

"Ice floats, stupid."

"Fine!" he grumbled, bending a ball of water into Shikoba's face. He smirked to himself as Shikoba scrunched her face up comically and shook her head like a dog.

"You suck." said Shikoba, staring at the rapidly solidifying water below her feet. Then, they broke through the surface of the salty waves, about two hundred meters away from the shore. All around, the were surrounded by pale light from the waning moon reflected off of the rippling black sea. The air was cool and salty, with a small breeze bringing the slightest smell of winter.

Saviq formed a platform of ice in the shape of a small boat with a dip in the center for them to sit in. He kneeled in the front and made a swimming motion with his arms, like he was swimming breaststroke without his legs. Their little ice boat gradually sped up, until it was cruising along at about eighty kilometers an hour.

Cewong looked forwards, blinking back tears from the wind hitting her face. Then, she turned around to look at Shikoba sitting at the back of boat, who was opening her large black bag.

"Okay! Let's take inventory!" she said, flipping the bag upside down and dumping all of the contents into a messy pile on the ice boat.

Cewong's eyes widened at how much she brought; perhaps a dozen changes of clothes, half a leg of marinated picken, matches, soap, a knife, a rubber ducky (what the Koh did she steal that for?), a ten pound sack of rice, paper, pens and six or seven bottles of over the counter drugs and herbal mixes.

Saviq turned around at the noise, and Cewong noted with alarm that he eyed the bottles of pills and serums a little hungrily.

Shikoba looked up and immediately picked up all the clothing so that the bottles were scattered out of view.

"Hey guys, I got a bunch of stuff to wear. You might wanna get changed." she said, chucking a shirt at Cewong's face, "Oh, and I got winter clothes and shoes for you guys."

"I have shoes..." objected Cewong.

"Yeah, _sandals_." said Shikoba, "What happens if we go somewhere cold?"

"When will we have to do that?"

"Oh, I dunno. Hiding in a tundra? Humungous barren wastelands make pretty good hiding places." said Shikoba before turning to Saviq, "And dude, take a break from your water thing and put this on." she said, holding out a pair of baggy pants and an oversized black robe, "Your current clothes look and smell like crap."

"What? No. I can't just change in front of you two." snapped Saviq, snatching up the two items of clothing.

"Sure you can! We won't get offended if you flash your abs." smirked Shikoba while Cewong glared at her with a mortified blush crawling up her cheeks.

"You have no sense of propriety." grumbled Saviq, deciding to dive into the water.

While he was gone, Shikoba quickly took all of the bottles of herbs and medicines and dumped them into small plastic bags. Then, she strapped them to the inside of her coat and hastily rinsed out all of the bottles.

Cewong looked at her quizzically

Shikoba glanced over and said, "If he asks, say I threw some overboard because they were expired, and the rest of the bottles were empty."

"Oh…that's smart!"

"Yeah. Wouldn't want our resident jerkhead to get addicted to some other stuff as a substitute." said Shikoba, "And you should be putting on those shoes, baby girl."

"DON'T CALL ME THAT! And what's wrong with my sandals anyways?" grumbled Cewong, eyeing the pair of snow boots as if they'd personally offended her.

"You'll be on a hunk of ice for I dunno how long." said Shikoba smugly, "Might as well be warm."

Suddenly, Saviq appeared out of the water again, all of the water streaming off of his clothing as if it was made of wax.

"Hey, something's been bugging me." said Shikoba suddenly, the moment he stepped back onto the raft, "How did you get oxygen in that cave?"

"I usually bring it from the outside." said Saviq, "I tried using plants to make oxygen before, but they all died."

Shikoba snickered, "Gee, I wonder why."

"Why?" asked Cewong and Saviq simultaneously.

"Uh..._photosynthesis?_" replied Shikoba as if that were the entire solution.

"It should've happened." said Saviq, who looked genuinely perplexed, "_I_ made carbon dioxide, there was soil, the rocks created light-"

"Yeah, they created _green_ light." said Shikoba, almost condescendingly.

"What's your point?" snapped Saviq.

"Okay, I assume you put green plants in the cave?"

"Yes. What of it?" said Saviq impatiently.

"_Green_ plants reflect _green_ light." she said, leaning her head forwards.

Saviq raised and eyebrow.

"So it doesn't absorb the energy from _green_ light, because it's reflected."

Saviq's eyes widened a little, and then broke into a scowl.

"_Smartass._" he muttered.

"You know it!" she smirked, "Now let's move."

"Where are we going?" he asked, standing at the stern of the ice raft, "There are no safe places for us to stay."

"Actually, I heard a legend about a floating island once!" said Shikoba, "I don't know what it was, but apparently, it travelled the world and scents are undetectable on it, so they can't even track us with shirshus. That will be our destination!"

"You know what that sounds like to me?" said Saviq, blasting the ice raft through the water at eighty miles per hour again, "A mentally unstable person trying to be idealistic."

"Whaaaaat? I'm perfectly realistic!" said Shikoba, "You know who's idealistic though?"

"_Who._" sighed Saviq, partially to humor her.

"How far are we from the shore?" asked Shikoba.

"How am I supposed to know? May like thirty miles or so." snapped Saviq, "Why?"

"Oh good. It's out of voice detection range." stated Shikoba obliviously before sucking in a deep breath and shouting "AMON! AMONEY THE PHONEY IDEALISTIC PONY!"

"What the fuck's wrong with you!" hissed Saviq, bending a torrent of water at her face.

"Pleh! Gross!" said Shikoba, spitting a mouthful back at Saviq.

He froze it in midair and tossed it back in the sea.

"Okay. I see how it is. Now that's just not fair. You're using your bending to oppress me." pouted Shikoba, "And that was the third time you dumped water on me tonight! You're going to ruin my hair at this rate." she said plaintively, lifting up her thick, matted mop of brown hair to demonstrate.

"Anything I do to that rats nest would be a favor at this point."

"Hey! I've never had rats live in my hair!" said Shikoba indignantly, "Although I did get spider-lice before. At the South Pole! How does one contract spider-lice in the middle of a tundra!?"

"How old were you?" asked Cewong before Saviq could make another demeaning comment.

"Ten, I think." said Shikoba, "My grams got _so_ mad."

"Why?" asked Cewong, "It wasn't _your_ fault."

"Well, it kind of was." replied Shikoba sheepishly, "There was an oversea circus, and I kinda snuck onto the ship to go play with the baby tigerdillos."

At this point, Cewong wasn't even surprised with the information.

"_Soooo_...anything interesting ever happen to you guys?" asked Shikoba.

"I already confessed my entire life story." said Saviq blandly before turning around to look at Cewong with piercing eyes, "It's your turn now."

"Uh...I had a pretty normal life-"

"She summoned a demon fox! And has weird dreams! And you saw her get all glowy and possessed back at the prison, right?"

"Wait a sec, what, exactly, happened at the prison?" asked Cewong in confusion, "I don't really remember any of it. Except that you did..._bloodbending_. And hurt a lot of people." she said, glaring at Saviq accusingly.

"I could do the same to you." he growled, making her flinch back in fear.

"Savage, you're not making yourself any more trustworthy." said Shikoba, rolling her eyes.

"Why do _you_ trust me?" asked Saviq, turning around and looking at her with suspicion still, "You literally have no reason to."

"Well, if death is inevitable, I would like it to be by your hand. Either you make all my organs explode all at the same time, or the medics make my organs explode one at a time to extract information, or...they'll make little baby girl's organs explode one at a time and make me watch. Oh, and then make my organs explode after that." said Shikoba with a smile.

Saviq turned to stare at her.

The silence was so thick it could be sliced through with a knife.

Then, Shikoba turned around and rubbed a horrified Cewong on the head before asking, "Hey, why didn't you get offended with me calling you 'baby girl' this time around?"

"You're crazy." muttered Cewong.

"Well _you're_ boring!" retorted Shikoba, "I will stop being crazy when you stop being apathetic."

"I'm not apathetic." mumbled Cewong, "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"About why I keep having these weird dreams and stuff."

"Hmm. I dunno." said Shikoba with a hand on her chin, "Oh, by the way, you actually bent elements at the prison, I think."

"I did!?" exclaimed Cewong. That should've been impossible! She was debent when she was a small child, and there is no way those powers could possibly come back.

Testily, she put her hand above the water in the ocean, and willed it to move. Nothing happened.

_Oh good. I'm still clear after all._

"Do you honestly think that's the way to bend?" said Saviq pretentiously.

"No, because I'm a normal person." she retorted, "Who doesn't do terrible things like k...kill other people!"

Saviq rolled his eyes. "What I did at the prison is not exactly waterbending." he said vaguely.

"Sure it was!" said Shikoba, "You were bending water inside people, how could it not be waterbending?"

"_Blood_ is different from water."

"What do you mean?" asked Cewong, curious in spite of herself. Curious about the sickening acts of perverting the elements of the world and even of other human bodies in a path to self destruction. She really should suppress these urges, but it was so intriguing...

"Bending blood feels like ripping power from someone. Bending water feels like influencing something obedient."

"Hmm...that's interesting." said Shikoba, hand on chin and mouth pursed contemplatively, "So bending blood feels like dominating someone's power..."

"Yes."

There was a very pregnant pause as Shikoba continued to contemplate.

"Hmm…" she hummed to herself, "hmm...HMM..._HMMMM-_"

"What the fuck is your problem?" snapped Saviq.

"Yeesh, I was just thinking. So bloodbending is basically exerting your own energy over someone else's energy, by YOU taking control of the water that THEY'd previously controlled with their own energy." said Shikoba happily, "Which means we each have some kind of energetic core, whether we are benders or nonbenders, and this energy is used to perform bodily functions! So when we humans bend, we exert our own energy into the elements to make them move! So debending simply takes away our means of projecting energy! That's cool! I wanna bend now!" she said, voice starting to rise with excitement.

Cewong blinked. Then she thought about what Shikoba said. It was actually pretty logical.

"So...somewhat different topic now…" said Shikoba, eyes alight, "Okay, so debending somebody is blocking their bending qi points permanently, right?"

"Yes..." said Cewong uncertainly.

"Y'know the fiasco behind debending when it was first used, like four hundred years ago?"

"Some people were involved in a ghost attack and had a relapse in bending or something." said Saviq, lifting an eyebrow.

"Yes! And they were able to regain it because standard procedure for debending at first was not to kill, or remove the qi point, only to _scar_ it, but…" Shikoba paused here and stared off into space, "Okay, this is a stretch...what if there were spirits involved that first time, and they healed scars?"

"Uh...no." said Saviq with a roll of his eyes, "Spirits disappeared from the world a long time ago."

"We haven't seen spirits for almost five hundred years...but it doesn't mean that they don't exist."

"Usually, when things disappear, they don't exist." said Saviq bluntly.

"Oh stop trying to act like my intellectual superior." said Shikoba with a roll of her eyes, "Have you noticed that there seem to be parts of a map the just...don't show up? Or were they just censoring everything I read in prison?"

"No...I those were the places where most people journeyed to and died." said Cewong, thinking back to her maps at school, "Like the Poles, and the some places in the Southern Earth Kingdom, or Northern Fire Nation...they are said to be, I dunno, supernatural-"

"Supernatural...or spiritual?" said Shikoba, clenching her fists in excitement, "Maybe there are spirits, but they kill every sailor around the region, so nobody lives to tell the tale!"

"Wait...are we headed towards the Northern Fire Nation right now?" asked Cewong with trepidation.

"Yup." said Shikoba lightly.

"Shouldn't we change course?"

"No." said Saviq in a stubborn voice, "I have something that all of those other sailors didn't."

"What makes _you_ so great, Mr. Ego?" asked Shikoba tauntingly.

"Bending." he snapped.

Cewong was still unsure. "But...but..."

"I can take on any spirit." he said confidently, "They can't possibly be _that_ dangerous."

Cewong looked back at Shikoba uncertainly. The other girl was staring Saviq's turned back with an inscrutable expression, her brow furrowed in thought.

"Shikoba?" prompted Cewong.

"I think we'll be caught by the state if we go somewhere 'safe'." said Shikoba, drawing little quotation with her fingers "Might as well try a different route."

"Well, if we went into such dangerous waters, wouldn't we...y'know, _DIE?_" said Cewong impatiently.

"We'd die anyways." said Shikoba nonchalantly, "I don't know if you've noticed, but the state wouldn't exactly welcome a group of people who blew up their prison and a couple dozen of it's staff. If anything, we'll be tortured for information and then killed."

Then, she turned her back on both of them, layered a couple shirts and pants on the ice raft, and promptly fell over.

"_Uh_...Shikoba?"

"Shush. I'm sleeping." said Shikoba.

Cewong's eyes widened. This was only the third time she's seen the other girl sleep in the week and a half that they've known each other. Cewong was still so full of questions, but she didn't want to disturb someone who had so little sleep. Or maybe Shikoba was just avoiding the question.

Honestly though, Cewong didn't really mind if she was. She trusted Shikoba, for some odd reason, and knew that whatever choice the other girl made would most likely be the best one for their situation.

Maybe she herself should take a nap, to see if she could enter that dream world again. Maybe she could even try to find the Library and the Fox! Maybe the scrolls are in there...

No. That was crazy. She was going crazy.

But it didn't really matter. It was only a dream, and it would be temporary relief from all the confusion and cold hardness of life.

And so she sat cross legged and waited for the vibrant grassy plains to return...

* * *

It felt like she'd barely been in her dream for five minutes before she was violently jolted back to reality, namely by shocking cold running down her spine and roaring winds her ears and someone violently shaking her shoulders.

Her eyes snapped open and were immediately stung by sharp pellets of cold rain. She was pressed against the side of their little ice boat, which was lurching dangerously back and forth with torrents of salty water gushing over the sides. Thunderous explosions complimented brilliant fractals of jagged lighting, ripping through the air. All around, the seas raged in chaos with the weeping black sky, reducing their tiny boatful of three people into a speck in the roiling grey plains of water.

"What's going on!?" shrieked Cewong as the icy boat pitched dangerously.

A huge wave crashed over them, slamming Cewong onto the opposite side, scrabbling for purchase to no avail on the slippery boat. The violent gush of water almost swept her overboard. She inhaled a burning mouthful of saltwater as she called for help, trying to dig her nails painfully into the icy surface.

Then, she felt a hand grab onto her sleeve, dragging her haphazardly back inside.

"_Uff._" coughed Shikoba as Cewong fell into the edge of the boat, slamming them both backwards.

"What's going on!?" shouted Cewong over the roaring wind and rain, "Where's Saviq?"

"Here." he yelled, staggering on the frozen hull as the boat was pitched sideways by another forceful wave.

"AH!" cried Shikoba as she skidded over the side and was swallowed by the waves.

"_Fuck._" muttered Saviq as he dove into the ocean after her.

Cewong curled up, shivering and freezing cold as the boat continued to rock back and forth wildly. She was starting to panic now. She was all alone on this floating chunk of ice, which was melting into her clothing and sticking to her skin.

"Guys! Guys, where are you?" she shouted, her eyes darting around wildly. Then, she spotted two head bobbing in the ocean a little distance away, right as a wave tore her off of the boat as well.

Saltwater rushed into her mouth and nose, and the familiar burning sensation of drowning was back again. She kicked her legs wildly, and managed to get to the surface for one moment, taking a breath surrounded by gray, roiling waters and roaring winds, and everything shadowed by an overwhelming darkness.

Suddenly, she felt a hand looping into her arm, keeping her from being separated again.

"Saviq! Freeze our arms together!" shouted Shikoba, voice almost completely drowned out by the storm.

Cewong felt a sinewy arm yank her over so that the three of them formed a triangle. Then there were small crackles as frigid seawater crystallized around their interconnected elbows, tying them together like padlocks. She shivered from the numbing sensation, feeling dizzy, and dehydrated, and cold enough to turn to ice.

She wasn't sure how long they were stuck together, but eventually, everything blurred and darkened until it was nothing but a mess of sounds and blackness in front of her eyes and extreme fatigue in her limbs.

After what felt like an infinite of being thrashed by the storm, she was aware of being deposited onto a gritty bank of sand with cool waves washing over her face. Through her closed eyelids, the bright sunlight filtered through fine red capillaries and tickled her eyeballs. The sun felt comfortably warm against her aching, fatigued limbs. She sniffed. The breeze smelled fresh and salty, like stone and seaweed.

Nearby, there were groans of discomfort coming from her friends, and she wrenched open her eyeballs and turned her head using an exorbitant amount of force. But instead of seeing her friends, she saw a crowd of old people wearing archaic red robes. They looked almost theatrical, as if they came from an ancient Fire Nation drama.

She struggled to sit, panic flooding into her mind.

"Who are you?" rasped Cewong weakly, "Where am I? Where are my friends?"

_"You are safe."_ said a deep, coarse voice, _"And soon...you will be free."_

* * *

a/n: Mwahaha, cliffie. She's going to die. (JK!)

Also, readers will cringe at how nerdy this story may become.

What group of people found them? Hint: a lady from this group of people has healing fire. First person to guess correctly will get a bunch of reviews on their fics!


	10. Chapter 10

a/n: Nothin' much to say about this chapter. You might be frustrated by how stupid Cewong acts, but that'll be all.

We left off with the three peoples being nerds and sailing around on a boat and getting caught in a hurricane and washing up on a beach. And none of this crap belongs to moi.

* * *

_Cewong felt strange. Not wrong, just different. It felt like she was encased in a much larger male body, full of age, and pain and weariness. It was a body that had endured a long existence of service and sacrifice, with all edges weathered off by the rough jostling of life._

_"I'm sorry, Raava. I failed to bring peace." said a deep voice which appeared to be coming from her own mouth, "Even with Vaatu locked away, darkness still surrounds humanity. There wasn't enough time."_

_"Don't worry. We will be together for all of your lifetimes," replied a resounding female voice from inside her chest, "And we will never give up."_

_And then, the last vapors of life left through her mouth and she saw a brilliant flash of light before the fragile wail of a newborn baby sounded in the distance..._

Cewong gasped and her eyes snapped open, met by the sight of vibrant, glowing aqua water, warming her cheeks. Above, several faces peered down at her; the same people who found her and her friends washed up on the sandy shore. She seemed to be in a subterranean pool in a circular cave, lined with tall, hexagonal crystal prisms refracting the rippling blue water all around the cavern. They arched up over her head so that she could only see an inkling of sky from the tiny hole above. A net was beneath her, suspending her body in the warm mineral water.

She let her mind be completely blank for a moment longer, and then with a deep internal sigh of resignation, she sat up, full of confusion.

"Do you know who you are?" asked a pruny old lady, peering over the lip of a stone wall, twenty feet above her.

"Sorry, but I have no idea what's going on." she said apologetically, brushing sodden strands of hair out of her face. She felt strangely rejuvenated; maybe this water had medicinal properties.

The pruny old lady above her nodded and said, "Did you have visions?"

"Vision? Um...I saw a uh...man who a...an...Avatar?" said Cewong tentatively, hoping that the woman didn't think she was insane.

But why did she care what they thought of her? _All_ the people on the island seemed insane. Why else would they be wearing tacky Ancient Fire robes? And how did they know she had 'visions'? Did they put some sort of hallucinogenic in the water? She was suddenly very suspicious.

Especially since these couldn't have been her normal dreams, because she could actually hear. And this seemed to be more of a story than anything else. Instead of someone communicating with her, she seemed to be inside their mind. It was like she was watching an entire lifetime through the eyes of a small man named Wan or something...And he was apparently the creator of the Avatar.

_So the Avatar is more than just legend. And this is where they came from? And they can bend all four elements!_

Well, according to her hallucination at least. But it felt so real, all the emotions, and determination, and light...it felt like she was actually there. And the course of events were so plausible. All of her questions about the nature of the world could be answered by this dream. If only she could be certain that it was factual.

Suddenly, she felt the rope bed beneath her lurch upwards. Warm droplets of water dripped off of her saturated clothing, yet she felt no extra weight from being waterlogged, almost as if the liquid was made of some sort of matterless aether.

"Who are you?" she asked the old woman looking down at her. The woman's face was calm and sage with deep wrinkles, shadows cast by the luminescent water in the pool.

"I am a healer." said the old woman once Cewong was back up to ground level. Cewong stepped off the rope net and stood on the ground, watching with intrigue as the last drops of the strange water beaded off of her clothing and slithered over the lip of the cave, into the ethereal pool below.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"Land of the Bhanti Tribe, one of the last protectors of a powerful truth."

"What truth?" asked Cewong wide eyed. The truth about the Avatar? The truth about bending? The truth about society? What was it? It sounded awfully like these strange people belonged to some kind of cult, and she really did not want to get caught up in it. After nearly drowning two times and witnessing unbelievable violence and gore in the past week alone, she was aching to go back to her asinine life at home where everything made sense. Her curiosity still existed, but she didn't want to be caught up in the Avatar crap anymore! And who were these people!? She was so confused!

"They aren't just going to give you all the answers right away!" said an obnoxiously familiar voice, "You have to make them like you first, baby gir-"

_"You are SO annoying."_ mumbled Cewong through clenched teeth. But still, she felt grateful for a familiar presence, even if Shikoba was the world's most precocious jerk.

"Nice to see you too." smirked Shikoba, "By the way, Avatars are supposed use diplomacy or something. And that mean no insults!"

"What do...Avatar!?" said Cewong incredulously, "Are you saying I'm an Avatar? I'm still not completely sure what that's supposed to be."

"I have no clue either, but you're one of them anyways," replied Shikoba with a shrug to her right, "At least according to 'Miss Guru' over here."

"I prefer the term 'Shaman'." sighed the old lady.

Cewong's eyes widened even more. She'd heard tales of Shamans; they were evil witches who used bending to corrupt the energy within people's bodies. At the beginning of the new age, there were mass purges of all the bending Shamans to remove their evil powers and reteach them tranquil, nonbending ways of healing. But if this old woman remained, the purge obviously didn't work well enough. It didn't matter anyways, though; there was no way she could pose a big threat, right? She was just a small, pruny, innocuous looking woman in goofy robes...she couldn't possibly corrupt people's souls...

"Do you feel alright, my dear?" asked the lady, shuffling to stand in front of Cewong, who looked slightly pale.

"Uh, yeah." replied Cewong awkwardly, "I feel pretty good."

"Good. Why don't you follow me." said the woman, waving a thin, weathered hand down the hallway.

She followed warily, keeping her eyes peeled for an exit. Shikoba (being annoyingly perceptive as always) patted Cewong on the head and said, "You can trust them. They'll feed you. And it's a lot better than prison food!"

As if on cue, Cewong's stomach emitted a mortifyingly loud rumble. She blushed and the old woman said almost indulgently, "Come. You can eat while I tell you some things..."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Cewong was sitting in a trapezoidal chamber and felt like her tastebuds were about to fall off from the sheer amount of peppers in the food.

As her eyes teared up, Shikoba snickered. "I thought you'd be a bit more tolerant of spicy food, being a Republic City native and all-"

"What does being from Republic City have to do with liking spicy food?" asked Cewong fanning her tongue.

"Well, it used to be a Fire Nation colony." said Shikoba with a roll of her eyes.

"It was also part of the Earth Kingdom!"

"Okay, let's stop. This little territorial dispute's been going on for centuries." sighed Shikoba, "It probably started before _Amon_ was even frickin' born."

"Don't make fun of his name like that!" gasped Cewong, "That's so disrespectful to all that he's accomplished for the world!"

The Shaman lady decided to make her presence know just then. "I believe your thoughts have been a bit misguided. Amon was not who you thought he was. His so called accomplishments were detrimental to society." she said, "You must let go of what society has told you and seek the truth yourself."

Cewong shivered. Now that she knew the old woman was a Shaman, the air around her seemed to have a much darker undertone. It seemed like _the Shaman_ was the one trying to misguide her.

"It is understandable if you do not trust me," continued the old lady sagely, "But can you at least tell me the visions you witnessed?"

"Uh...I saw a man, and he received-" Cewong swallowed, "He went on a quest to bend all of the elements and become a...a spirit?"

"Hmmm. Your description was somewhat accurate." hummed the old Shaman, rubbing her chin, "What you saw was the creation of the first Avatar."

"I...I've always been told that's just a legend." said Cewong, wide eyed, "The Avatar bends ALL the elements? And you think _I'm_ that crazy...thing? It's not possible!"

The old woman looked at her with a hint of sadness, "The Avatar is not evil. Did you not see all the actions that Wan performed for the sake of peace?"

"Yeah, but when most of the other people, like Wan's friends, got bending, and then they started killing each other!"

"It is human nature to compete. With or without the elements, darkness will be inevitable." said the Shaman, "And it will continue so long as the reality exists."

"So you think there's no way people can be good?"

"There is light." said the Shaman looking at her intensely, "And that light is within you. _You_ can bring peace to this world."

"No, I can't. The world is already fine!" said Cewong in alarm, "What does it need me for?"

"It is your duty."

"You're crazy. I bet you're tricking me into something." said Cewong suspiciously, "I bet you drugged that water so I'd see all that weird stuff and be confused enough to believe what you're saying."

The old Shaman actually had the gall to look slightly affronted. "We would not dare to contaminate the spirit water wit-"

"_Spirit_ water!?" interrupted Shikoba, clapping her hands together like a child, "Does that mean it's like...spirity? Like _epic healing_ spirity?"

"Yes. That is the reason we placed your friend in it." said the Shaman with a chip of impatience, "We were hoping it would heal her Avatar spirit."

"But I'm not the Avatar; I can't bend anything! And I'm not a spirit!" said Cewong, "Besides, aren't spirits like...extinct now?"

"A spirit resides in you, although it seems to be deeply wounded, from what I can tell." said the Shaman, resting a warm, knobbly hand on Cewong's shoulder, "I must ask you to trust me. I must reread your energy. You will not be harmed, I promise."

Cewong nervously glanced at Shikoba, and was annoyed to find that the other girl was on her hands and knees a little ways behind, with her ear pressed flat against the ground.

_What's her problem?_

"Shikoba!" hissed Cewong, "What are you doing!?"

"This is hollow!" replied Shikoba without bothering to move form her position, sprwaled across the stone floow.

Cewong felt the strong urge to rub her temples. It was mortifying to be with Shikoba in public; the older girl had no sense of what was considered socially acceptable behavior.

But the Shaman seemed unperturbed by Shikoba's immature conduct.

"There are a network of tunnels carved deep underneath this temple." she said, "Within is buried the most priceless treasure, lost from the new age."

Shikoba's eyes widened, and immediately, she stood up, looking more serious than Cewong had ever seen.

"If we prove our worthiness, can we take a look?"

"Am I missing something?" asked Cewong, becoming more and more irritated by the minute, "Why is nobody saying anything clearly? What are you even looking for?"

"Knowledge, you knucklehead!" cried Shikoba, grabbing Cewong by the shoulders and shaking her vigorously, "Nothing in the world is more valuable than knowledge!"

Cewong's head flopped back and forth and she shoved Shikoba away, feeling annoyed and disoriented. She huffed and turned back to the Shaman.

"Does this mean you have an underground library?" asked Cewong with a touch of trepidation. It was starting to sound uncannily like her dream library...the massive cavernous temple-like structure that seemed to extend down dozens of stories, all devoid of windows and sun. It seemed like it would be subterraneous, like the one here.

"We have kept many censored documents here in hopes that the knowledge will never disappear from this world." said the Shaman, continuing down the hallway, "Although, we've lost many valuable archives to spirits."

"Do you mean the spirits stole them?" asked Cewong, "Spirits shouldn't be able to actually _touch_ anything, right?"

"Oh, some of them can." said the Shaman with a hint of a smile, "I for one know that there's a little creature that comes and steals scrolls right under my nose."

Cewong blanched.

_Stealing scrolls..._

"Is it a fox?" she asked hurriedly.

The Shaman gave her an odd look. "Indeed. How do you know?"

"Uh..."

Cewong wasn't sure she wanted to tell this lady about the spirit fox and Jinora's archives...

The Shaman scrutinized her for a moment, but seemed to let the matter drop. "Come." she said suddenly, guiding her into a chamber. There was a stone bed in the middle of the room, and cryptic symbols carved all around the crown moulding, "Lay down, and close your eyes."

Cewong eyed the bed warily.

"C'mon, just do it!" said Shikoba, "I'll be here to make sure you stay alive!"

Cewong didn't exactly feel any better knowing someone as unstable as Shikoba was around, but she did as she was told. Instinct told her it was safe. She decided to trust it, even though her mind was reeling.

Suddenly, she felt a flash of warmth moving across her body.

"Keep your eyes shut." commanded the Shaman, and Cewong felt a warm, wrinkly hand cover her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked, slightly panicked.

"I am reading your energy." said the Shaman, falling into a long moment of silence before saying, "_Impressive_. You have an extremely strong connection with the spirits."

Connection with the spirits? What was this woman talking about? Cewong was confused. Did this mean that she could talk to extinct spirits?

"But it is damaged. Your body and energy are severely crippled, so much so that it is starting to damage the Avatar spirit residing in your body."

"But I feel perfectly fine!" sad Cewong, "I can walk, and I have good coordination and memory and stuff. So what's wrong?"

She was getting suspicious. She jerked her head away from the woman's hands and opened her eyes and saw...

_Fire_.

Hovering in the Shaman's hands and drawing swirling orange patterns over her abdomen. The fire seemed to be reaching into her, flowing down her spine and intertwining with her energy…

Wait..._energy?_

Since when did she start to think about stuff in terms of energy? The thought seemed to have popped out of nowhere.

But a lot of weird stuff has happened recently, the foremost of which was that this haggy Shaman lady was _firebending_.

Cewong hissed in alarm and rolled off the bed, backing herself against the wall. But instead, her backside collided with Shikoba.

"See, this is why you should've kept your eyes shut!" chided the older girl, pushing her forwards.

"Oh, it's so much better to keep me blind, huh?" said Cewong indignantly.

"It is not the subverters who are blinding you, but your creators." sighed the Shaman, "In the most idealistically manufactured environment, ignorance feels safer, and people seek it."

Cewong gave her a blank stare.

_Okay...I understood none of that._

She swallowed her pride and looked at Shikoba, who could usually make sense of things. But the older girl only gave her a nonchalant shrug, as if to say "Figure it out yourself."

"So," said Cewong, "Who's blinding who?"

"You're being brainwashed." said Shikoba impatiently, "Don't worry though! I was brainwashed for a long time too! I didn't get better until I was thrown in jail!"

"Then how do I know what's real information and what the 'brainwashing' portion?" said Cewong in exasperation.

"There are two sides to the blade of fact." said the Shaman, "And absolute truth is the infinitesimally tiny edge between two biases. By learning of both views on a matter, you have the ability to find the truth to the best of your own ability. It is your obligation as a part of society to try and stay as well informed as possible."

"Well...whatever the current society in the world is, it's pretty functional..." said Cewong dubiously.

"Is it?" asked the Shaman, hobbling up to her with startling vigor, "Does your current society carry out the will of the righteous universe? Does it work for fairness and progress of the human race?"

Cewong took another step back, startled. "Uh, there's elections and public education and worker protection and other, um, civil rights..."

The Shaman took a step away, sensing that she was alarming Cewong. "But does your society work to carry out the transcendentalist laws of righteousness? What do you think we as humans should be striving to achieve?"

"Equality." said Cewong automatically, "And peace, and uh, fairness?"

"You forgot the most important." said the Shaman, _"Balance."_

"Isn't balance the same as equality and peace?"

"Not according to the mindset of your current society. Right now, equality has come to signify static conformity. Peace has come to signify mass submission." said the Shaman, "But that strays from the essential meaning of the words! True peace means harmonious agreement of tolerant, open eyed citizens. True equality means giving identical value to all life, not converting everything into carbon copies of one another."

Cewong was about to open her mouth, but then realized the Shaman actually made sense. It wasn't what her textbooks said...but her textbooks were only information written from one side's perspective, right? Maybe she should listen to this Shaman more to get the other side so she's not 'brainwashed'. Or maybe this Shaman was just trying to poison her mind?

Somehow, Cewong knew that the Shaman was a clear, unbiased voice. How else could her words be so logical, albeit a little too sophisticated for her to completely understand? And it was odd. This woman did not encourage her to feel disdain, or anger or hatred towards her own society, not the way that books and school had taught her to hate bending-

Cewong's eyes widened.

_No no no_...I'm starting to think like a rebel now!

She was growing more tolerant of the corrupted art of bending! Wait, did she just think of bending as a form of _art?_ It wasn't art! It was bloodshed and violence. But perhaps there were two sides to bending, like how the Shaman lady said. What if it could be used to heal and nurture and build, instead of destroy? This was getting more and more confusing. Didn't Saviq use waterbending to heal himself?

Speaking of which, where was Saviq?

"Hey, where's Saviq?" asked Cewong out of the blue.

"He's learning to waterbend properly." said Shikoba bluntly.

Cewong gaped. Then she turned around to look at the Shaman. The old woman was looking at her with slightly narrowed eyes, as if to read her reaction to the news. Cewong stuck her chin out a little and decided to act a little more..._tolerant_. And she was a little bit curious to meet other waterbenders.

"Can we go watch?" she asked in what she hoped wasn't a whiny voice.

The Shaman looked very pleased.

"Of course." she said, turning to exit the room, "Come this way."

* * *

a/n: I know this sounds like a cliffhanger, but this chapter got too long and I had to split it. And sorry if the Shaman spoke like she was reciting the constitution or something. I wanted her to sound fancy and intelligent.

Just to clarify, Cewong saw the same vision as Korra did in _Beginnings 1+2_ of Book 2. The Bhanti Tribe is located in the Fire Nation, and is a safe haven of sorts. More info in the next chapter! Also, note that this occurs 500 years after canon.

And finally, thank you to all the readers! (Especially Mrs. K who reminded me to get my butt over to my computer and update this)

Review!


	11. Chapter 11

a/n: I'm afraid Cewong is turning into a mary sue :(...

Anyways, have some of my crappy writing. I have finals this week, so it makes logical sense for me to write a five thousand word piece of fanfiction rather than studying, right?

Okey...so, we left off with Cewong being found by the Bhanti Tribe and discovering the beginning of the Avatar. (aka Avatar Wan).

Enjoy! And as always, I do not own this universe!

* * *

Cewong wasn't sure what to expect from a waterbending lesson, but it was certainly not this.

She, Shikoba, and the Shaman were sitting on the side, watching as Saviq and a woman sparred; but it looked more like an elegant dance. They ebbed and flowed with each other like the tides of the ocean in the nighttime: swirling, crashing, reaching for the moon. The woman spun around, tugging the water in a careful circle before she slung it back towards the Saviq, her long brown braid whipping around her waist like a rope.

Saviq flung his hands forwards, and the water gushed out of two blue jugs to his side, etched with the pattern of ripples. It heaved upwards to block the water that the woman launched, and then turned into a long, thick, whip-like structure. The clear blue rope swung into the woman's ankles, but instead of being knocked off balance, she did a back handspring, grabbing onto the water whip in the process. She launched herself into the air, twisting around, and the thick water whip was tugged out of Saviq's hands to coil around her body like a yoyo string.

Then, she kicked off the ground on one foot, spinning in the other direction and unwinding the water whip in the process. She flew high off the ground and twirled sideways like a to revolviing sideways through the air. The water whip followed the spinning of her arms and tore downwards, towards Saviq, whose's eyes were wide in alarm.

The last possible moment before it came into contact, the he managed to sidestep and fling his hands to the side. The water followed, and sent the woman hurtling earthwards. She swept the water into a slide to slow her descent and...

Slid right in between his legs.

On the way, she grabbed both of his ankles, causing him to slam forwards onto the ground with a shout.

"Haha, I win again." said the woman victoriously. She hopped to her feet, sopping wet, and walked in front of Saviq, offering a hand up.

Saviq sighed and took it and staggered to his feet, looking comically tall standing next to the female instructor. Then he looked over and saw Cewong and Shikoba watching and slapped his hands over his face with an mortified groan.

"So," smirked Shikoba, "How many times have you had your butt whooped?"

Saviq glared at her.

The other woman smiled and said, "This would be the sixth time today."

"What do you mean 'today'?" asked Cewong, "How many other days have we been here?"

"Almost a week now." said the Shaman, hobbling over to them, "You were in the water for most of the time. I'd hoped it would heal you if you stayed immersed long enough, but your spirit has been too deeply injured for too long a time."

"Uh...okay." replied Cewong uncomfortably.

"Ahh! Hello." said the female water bender enthusiastically, holding out a moist hand, "I am called Tala."

"I'm Cewong." she replied, awkwardly shaking Tala's hand.

"So I've heard." said the small dark woman, scrutinizing her with clear blue eyes, "What did you think of this lesson?"

"Well...I guess it was different from what I expected." said Cewong. Actually, she thought the performance was pretty incredible, but she wasn't about to _admit _it.

"The nature of water is different than what you thought, isn't it?" asked Tala, "It can be cold, abrasive, and suffocating, or it can be soft and gentle and pliable to experienced hands."

"So how did you do?" asked Shikoba impertinently, bouncing over to pat Saviq on the shoulder, "Are your hands _experienced_ yet?"

Saviq pressed his lips together and shuffled away from her a little, scratching the back of his head and looking at the ground. His ears seemed to be lightly flushed. Shikoba had an incredibly smug grin plastered on her face.

Cewong tilted her head to the side. She was missing something. Saviq was a surprisingly awkward person, but even he wasn't _this_ awkward. She glanced at Tala.

The older woman did not seem as amused. She gave Shikoba a very bland expression before saying, "Your friend has been touched by darkness."

"What do you mean?" asked Cewong.

She wondered what this "darkness" was. Was it his terrible personality? His history with gangs? His _bloodbending_?

"It's not my fault." said Saviq irritably, "It just happens to be useful."

"It's only useful for people who have enough self discipline." retorted Tala, "Or else it consumes your mind and won't allow you to connect with water in its purest state."

"Bloodbending, you mean?" asked Cewong.

"Yes." said Tala, turning to her, "Tell me, Cewong, what do you believe the true nature of water is, from watching this lesson? What were we doing with it?"

"Uh...well...it looked like you were tossing it back and forth."

Tala nodded for her to continue.

"You never really made the first move," Cewong said, flushing self consciously at how obtuse her observations sounded, "And you always reused the water he threw at you?"

"There's a specific word that best describes the ideal way to handle water." said Tala.

"Slinging?" asked Cewong, "Or wait...pushing?"

"You're getting closer." said the instructor.

"Redirecting?" said Shikoba.

"Yes!" said the instructor excitedly, "Water is the element of _change_. Change is always present, and it cannot be forced, or stopped. The best we can do is guide and redirect it towards the most favorable outcome."

"Oh...that doesn't just apply to water though, does it?" asked Cewong.

"No. It doesn't." said the Shaman, breaking into their conversation, "It applies to _your_ life, and _your_ duties most of all."

"Are you saying that I'm a waterbender?"

"You were a waterbender." said the Shaman, "And earth. And fire. And air. And you will be one again. But-"

"But I've been injured, I know." said Cewong, slightly exasperated, "I still just don't see why it's so important for me to learn to bend though."

"You must learn the ideologies behind each element as well as the physical aspect. Bending gives you the means to bring peace. Only a truly kind soul can hold so much energy without being corrupted, using its powers for good only." said the Shaman, "The Avatar spirit has chosen you for a reason."

"But I don't want to be the Avatar!" cried Cewong, thinking back to how much that _Wan_ guy in her so-called _vision_ suffered from carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. All of this was so new to her. Half a month ago, she was safe in her boring home, waiting in boredom for the boring Equality Festival to start. Now, she was on an unmapped island in the middle of the ocean, discussing _bending _and _spirits_ with two complete strangers and two people she met in _prison_. And she was being told that she was supposed to save the world...somehow...

She wondered what would happen if she ran away and jumped into the ocean right now.

"It is your duty!" said the Shaman insistently, "The world is being thrown out of balance, and you are the person best suited for healing it. We have waited years for a human with enough natural spiritual force to restore the Avatar spirit."

"How could I have spiritual energy? I didn't even know spirits existed until-…...I still don't completely believe that spirits exist!"

"Have you ever felt a massive rush of power, or lost control and bent the elements?"

"I..."

She did.

She finally admitted to herself that she did. At the cave with scrolls, she watched herself carried into the air by a sphere of wind while her eyes glowing demonically. And later, at the prison, she panicked and thought she lost all motor function and passed out, but remembered falling out of the sky, surrounded by what looked like the byproduct of a tornado, earthquake, and conflagration. Both were the results of extremely traumatic experiences.

"We were extremely hopeful when we saw the temple begin to glow." said Tala, "It was the first time in over five hundred years."

"It glowed?" asked Shikoba with wide eyes, "Huh. I wonder why that is."

"It is the result of her going into the Avatar State."

"So when she goes glowy, a bunch of other places go glowy too." said Shikoba, hand on her chin, "I was just wondering about the scientific part..."

"Yes, I _really _like the idea of a logical, scientific explanation." said Cewong.

The Shaman gave them a somewhat hopeless stare. "I see we will accomplish nothing by talking."

"But you can try letting us go into your _library_." said Shikoba with a small wink.

"Let us make a compromise." said the Shaman, "If you promise to follow my instructions, I will allow you to read our archives."

"Depends on what the instructions are." replied Shikoba.

The Shaman turned to Cewong, "When I was reading your energy earlier, I noticed that you have the strongest affinity towards the element air."

Cewong nodded warily. She didn't like where this conversation was going...

"This means that you would naturally be a airbender, if the Avatar spirit had not chosen you as the next Avatar." said the Shaman, "This is very interesting, because airbenders were almost completely wiped out during the Hundred Year War, over five hundred years ago."

"Then why am I here?"

"Back then, there was one airbender left in the whole world." said the Shaman, "The _Avatar_. You are a direct descendent of the last Air Avatar."

"So there is only one bloodline of all airbenders?"

"There are others of Air Nomad descent, but there may not be any more airbenders. And even if there are, you cannot tell by looking."

"Because their bending was removed?" asked Cewong, "Like mine? Can't it heal?"

"It was torn from your body. It will never grow back," said the Shaman, "At least not without very powerful energybending."

"Energybending?" asked Cewong wide eyed. How could energy be bent? Energy couldn't even be touched! It wasn't tangible like an element.

"In the era before the Avatar," said the Shaman, "We bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves."

Cewong was suddenly struck with an odd sense of familiarity, as if she'd just heard that phrase yesterday.

_"To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted and destroyed."_ she recited in a trance, _"The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can touch the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginningless time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light."_

For a moment, she was twelve again, insides churning with fear until she felt a new rush of energy swirling inside her pulsing down her spine from her head and her heart, warm and comforting: a new way to live and solve problems in the world. For a moment she _understood_ the nature of the world and herself...and then it was gone.

A moment later, she returned to being a clueless confused fifteen year old girl.

She snapped out of her trance, and turned to see the Shaman smiling at her.

"You remembered." said the elderly woman appraisingly, "You remembered the most enlightening moment of one of your most spiritual past lives."

"Past lives...?" repeated Cewong weakly.

"Can we get on with the proposition?" asked Saviq rudely, "With the library."

"A tad hasty, aren't we?" said the Shaman, raising a single white eyebrow before turning back to Cewong, "You were quoting a lion turtle."

Cewong gaped. Weren't lion turtles the creatures from the vision she had while immersed in the Spirit water? They were the ones that helped create the first Avatar, or something...

"During the age of the Avatar, the lion turtles relinquished their duty as mankind's protectors against the spirit wilds. Most went deep into hibernation after giving humans the power of the elements." said the Shaman, "They are still alive, and you must find them in order to restore your own bending abilities. That is your task. Come back after you have succeeded-"

"So basically," said Shikoba petulantly, "I'm never going to be able to see your library."

"Jeez," mumbled Cewong indignantly, "Nice to know you have faith in me."

"You're welcome."

"All I ask is that you find the first lion turtle. The one that possesses the element air." interrupted the Shaman, "It's rumored to be located at the Western Air Temple."

"So all we have to do is find the Lion Turtle and I'll get the truth?" asked Cewong.

"You already know the truth!" said the Shaman with a touch of impatience, "The truth resides within you! Within your past lives, preserved in the memory of the Avatar spirit! We are simply setting you on the road of spiritual revival."

"So why can't we see the archives first?" asked Saviq.

"You three are cheeky." said Tala incredulously, "We fed you, and healed you, and now you're demanding more? So far, we're your only allies on the whole planet. It would be wisest to keep in our good graces."

The Shaman held out a hand and Tala huffed and backed down.

"You must have faith." said the Shaman to Cewong, "This is your destiny. You are the Avatar, and you must accept it."

"So I just have to do what you say without any proof?" asked Cewong in exasperation.

"Some things cannot be explained by logic." said the Shaman.

"Challenge accepted!" said Shikoba, "I will prove all this spirit mumbo jumbo someday! And I'll makes lots of money if I don't get executed!"

"So you accept the task?" asked the Shaman with an amused smile.

"No-_mmph!_" started Cewong and Saviq as Shikoba leapt forwards and slapped her hands over their mouths.

"Yes!" cried Shikoba over them.

The Shaman raised an eyebrow.

"But first, I have four questions!" continued Shikoba hastily, holding out four childishly splayed out fingers to demonstrate, "Are you protected by spirits here? Are you a part of a cult? Do we get food and a map and water, _wait actually we don't need water cuz we're on the ocean so never mind_, aaaand...how old are you?"

Cewong pushed Shikoba's hand off her mouth gave her a quizzical look.

"We...we are indeed, protected by spirits." said the Shaman, seemingly startled by the correct assumption, "And I'm not sure what you mean by a 'cult'..."

"Oh. I suppose it doesn't matter anyways." said Shikoba to herself, before flashing the Shaman an odd look, "Do we get supplies? How old are you?"

"We will supply you well. And give you a sky bison."

"A WHAT!?" exclaimed Cewong, wide eyed.

"A flying bison." said Tala, looking very smug about their shock, "Do you want to see one?"

"Yeah! When can we see it? I want a sample! How do they fly?" asked Shikoba exuberantly.

"We'll show you tomorrow morning." said Tala, "Get up bright and early!"

"Why?" asked Saviq challengingly, "Why give us so much? How do you know we'll even do what you ask?"

"I don't." said the Shaman with a smile, "But the fate of the world will fall to the young someday. It will fall to _you_ someday, and you will have a better chance of bringing back the light if you have preparation. We are safe and well protected and content here, but you three are obviously not. This will be the first of many quests to find the truth. Don't you want to know the truth?"

"What do you mean 'the truth'?" asked Cewong, "Can't you just tell us?"

"Would you really believe me?" asked the Shaman, "I can set you on the right path, but the lessons you learn from your journey must be discovered by yourself."

"You're crazy." muttered Saviq.

"Even you must admit that there must be some possibility for the legends, the folklore, to actually be a buried reality." said the Shaman, "Aren't you curious? Don't you ever feel that society has tried to wrong you?"

"Yup." said Shikoba cheerily. Cewong and Saviq turned around to glare at her.

"What?" she asked.

"_I'm pretty sure that was rhetorical..."_ muttered Saviq.

"Life can be better. _You_ all have the power to make change." continued the Shaman over their bickering, "You have the power to bring peace to mankind through balance rather than suppression."

"Fine." said Cewong, feeling resigned, wary, and inexplicably excited, "We'll go."

Saviq opened his mouth but the Shaman spoke over him.

"Excellent!" she said, "You will be shown to a place to sleep, and you may leave whenever you feel the time is right."

Then, she ushered them out of the room, and Tala waved her hand for them to follow her down the stone hallway.

"You know," said Saviq petulantly, "You two wouldn't last a day if I didn't come with you."

"But you will come with us." said Shikoba immediately.

"How would you know?"

"Cuz I asked nicely?"

"No." snapped Saviq.

"Pretty please with rainbows and kisses and fluffy kittens?"

At Cewong's side, Saviq tensed up slightly.

"I don't have to go with you guys." said Saviq roughly, "I could always just stay here and learn waterbending and forget about the rest of the world."

"Oh come on! You have to stay with us." said Shikoba with a small grin, "We've had such excellent bonding time in the past, we're practically joined by the hips."

If it was possible, Saviq looked even more uncomfortable. He rubbed the back of his neck and started walking faster, almost like he was trying to outpace Shikoba.

Shikoba tugged on Cewong's arm to make her go faster, while saying to her in a very audible whisper, _"I don't think Saviq likes joining with people by the hips."_

Cewong gave Shikoba a somewhat suspicious glance. Saviq had his back turned, but if his reddening ears were anything to go by, then Cewong was ninety nine percent sure Shikoba said something lewd.

"That's odd though." continued Shikoba with a smirk, "I would've thought that after three weeks without getting o-"

"I'm going with you on your stupid pointless quest, okay?" interrupted Saviq, "Now shut the fuck up."

"Sweet! Have a wonderful night!" said Shikoba with a slap on the back that made him jump, "Aren't you lucky to be spending another long trip across the ocean with me?"

* * *

The next morning, Cewong stumbled into an open courtyard, rubbing her eyes blearily as she followed behind Shikoba, who was spouting a bunch of words that Cewong's brain was too dead to process. The tropical sunlight felt too bright, like it was trying to scorch her over sensitive retinas.

_"So are you?"_

Cewong blinked and looked up as Shikoba, who was giving her an expectant look.

"Sorry, what?" she asked.

"Wake up and pay attention when I speak!" said Shikoba, giving her a small slap across the face.

"Ah! What was that for?" yelped Cewong, jumping sideways in surprise.

"To wake you up! Duh. You're getting a flying bison today!" replied Shikoba, "You're supposed to be pumped!"

"I still feel half asleep."

"Then wake up!" cried Shikoba, gripping Cewong by the shoulders and shaking her back and forth violently, "Do some pushups! Do some jumping jacks! Run a few miles!"

"Stop it!" said Cewong, irritably wriggling away, "I'm allowed to be tired in the morning. The morning is _evil..._"

"Your face is evil."

"Seriously?" said Cewong, "Are you _trying_ to be as immature as possible?"

"In fact, I am." she replied, "Glad you finally you figured something out by yourself."

Cewong crossed her arms and walked off faster. Shikoba was a humongous jerk who never said anything nice or did anything normal! In fact, she wasn't even sure if the other girl had the ability to act like a typical human being. Being locked up in prison must've damaged her mind or something. Cewong was getting extremely irritated with Shikoba and wished she would stay here instead of coming along to the Western Air Temple.

But Shikoba did seem to have uncanny intuition, and she was one of the few people on earth who actually liked Cewong. _Maybe_. It was hard to tell what Shikoba's true feelings were about anything since she seemed to have a perpetual maniacal mask glued onto her face.

"Hello!" she heard a male voice call suddenly.

Cewong looked up and saw a person standing a little distance off, holding a bag of what looked like apples. He was wearing red robes as well, and looking up towards the sky. Cewong glanced up as well and saw a few large lumps flying around.

_Those must be the bison!_

"Hello sir." said Cewong, "Are you the, uh, air bison specialist?"

"Haha. No. We all take turns caring for them." he said before holding out a bag, "Here, take an apple. I'm going to call some of the Bison down."

Then, he took out a small white whistle out of his pocket. Upon closer inspection, it was carved in a shape with six legs and a beige arrow running from the tail to the head. He blew into it and...there was no sound.

"What's that supposed to do?" asked Cewong.

"It makes a very high frequency sound wave. Can't be detected by human ear." said Shikoba quickly, "The bison must have a much higher hearing range. Which is odd. I always thought larger animals would be able to hear lower sound frequencies."

The man gave Shikoba an odd look, like he had no idea what she was talking about. Cewong then gave the man a puzzled look. Even _she _knew what Shikoba was talking about with the sound waves and stuff...

_Do they not know anything about technology here?_

Suddenly, Cewong realized something: there were torches and candles here, and an outhouse, and no modern commodities at all.

"Why don't you have any technology here?" asked Cewong to the man, "Do you even have electricity and stuff?"

"No." said the man, "We have no need for it. We are protected here by the spirits, waiting for the right moment to re emerge."

"But you'll be crushed if you aren't prepared! The outside world has really dangerous weapons now!"

"You underestimate the power of spirits." said the man cryptically.

Before Cewong could reply, she felt a powerful rush of wind and a massive _WHUMP!_ that shook the ground beneath her feet. She turned around and gaped at the sheer size of the creature that landed behind her. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen; _six_ legs, each the width of a bundle of tree trunks, and a massive pelt covered in thick, shaggy white fur with beige arrows and stripes running down its body. Then, she heard a low chirping-purring noise coming from above.

"Awwwwww! They're so cute!" cried Shikoba, head tilted skywards.

Cewong looked up as well and saw five medium sized bison flying around in circles.

"Whoa." she said, smiling as one of the bison stuck its tongue out at her, "Can I feed one?" she asked, holding up the apple. The small herd of baby bison began to descend towards her.

"Go right ahead!" said the man warmly, "But choose wisely. A sky bison is a friend for life."

Cewong looked into the dark, curious eyes of all of the five giant, furry baby bison. They would be her friend for life? Did that mean she was _keeping _it? She wasn't just borrowing it? How would she take care of it? How would she hide it? How did she know which one was best for them?

With uncertainty, Cewong reached out a hand to pet one of them on the forehead, and immediately, the baby bison flopped onto it's back with a high pitched rumble. Cewong cast away her second thoughts and decided that this was the one. She patted its rough belly and offered the apple, which the bison gobbled up with a massive, shockingly pink tongue.

"So you've chosen?" asked the man, picking up his bag of apples and tossing the rest in the air for the remaining bison to catch. The four other young bison flew away, completely unperturbed and continued to play. The bison remaining by Cewong stood up and blew a gust of wind that knocked her flat on her back.

"Ah!" cried Cewong as she smacked into the soft grass, rubbing the back of her head, "Was that supposed to be a show of affection or something?"

"Maybe. Or maybe she was trying to annoy you" said the man, petting the young bison's arrow, "You chose the most...problematic of the bunch."

"So she won't listen to me?" asked Cewong, "Should I choose a new one?"

"No. She's very intelligent." said the man, "And tameable if you're patient."

"Can I uh, name her?" asked Cewong.

"Sure." shrugged the man.

"Oh! I know!" said Shikoba, hopping forwards to violently ruffle the bison's fur, "Kitsi."

Cewong was about to open her mouth to object, before conceding. "Sure. Why not."

"Yes!" said Shikoba exuberantly, "Y'know, I had a penguin otter named Kitsi when I was six."

"That's cute." said Cewong.

"Yeah. Except she couldn't fly."

"I can imagine." deadpanned Cewong.

"And she couldn't waterbend."

"What the koh does waterbending have to do with anything?" asked Cewong.

"Well, penguin otters swim, right?" asked Shikoba, "So if they were bending animals, they would do waterbending, like how sky bison airbend to fly."

"How could they possibly get themselves up with just wind?" said Cewong, "They're so huge."

"Sky Bison were the first airbenders." said the bison man, "They have very strong connections to the element."

"Oh. Uh, okay."

"Do you want to learn how to fly a sky bison?" asked the man

"Sure!" replied Cewong excitedly. She'd never been on an an animal that could fly before! The only animal she'd ever ridden was a camelephant at the Republic City Zoo. Plus she'd only been on a plane two times in her life; once to go on vacation to Ember Island, and once to visit her uncle and cousin in Omashu. Flying like this would be completely novel. Then, Cewong realized that she would be completely exposed. There would be no seatbelts, or saddles, or anywhere to sit.

"How high do air bison fly?" she asked apprehensively.

"As high as they want! Although it become difficult at very high altitudes." explained the man as he climbed onto the bison's head, "The air is too thin. C'mon, climb on. You're friend can come too. We'll start off with some basics..."

.

.

* * *

Cewong was surprised at how quickly she learned to steer the bison.

It was actually quite easy, as long as she was gentle. Kitsi seemed to like her well enough, and soon she was soaring through the air. The sensation was a lot less terrifying and a lot more liberating than she imagined.

She gently leaned towards the left side and tugged the reins with her. Then, she tilted her head up and felt the bison climbing higher in the sky. The air temperature cooled with every inch of increased altitude, until it felt similar to a chilly winter day in Republic City. Cold white sunlight washed over her skin and Kitsi's fur, gleaming off so brightly it was almost blinding. Water vapor rose from the hot, tropical oceans below, forming dewy droplets on her skin as it condensed in the colder air.

Cewong squinted down at the blue sea and green trees below, shimmering in the light and slightly hazy from streaks of white clouds painted across the sky. An overwhelming sense of contentment welled up at the thought the she was alone...alone with nothing but sun above, water below, and soft cool clouds hugging her from all directions.

It was serene, beautiful, dream-like, and it would be her life from now on, as long as she stuck with the quest.

_I could get used to this..._

* * *

a/n: Kitsi means 'tickle' in Tibetan or Nepali. I forget which. Also, should I give Cewong airbender tattoos later on? I have a feeling she wouldn't want to get them, since she'd have to cut off all her hair and get tattooed at some pretty painful spots, like her armpits and thighs. And...review!


End file.
